


Welcome to the New Age

by mabus101



Series: Six-Metal Superheroes [2]
Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Exalted
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, diverges after Buffy S5, inter-canon ships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-07-25 19:07:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 31
Words: 119,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7544395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mabus101/pseuds/mabus101
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Creation spins further out of control as Infernal Buffy and Abyssal Willow spiral downward. On Earth, Lilah Morgan is about to be elected President of the United States. What can save the multiverse now?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Welcome to the New Age

Ayesha Ura held out a fruit basket. A fruit basket! Anya bit her tongue and did her best not to giggle. "Welcome to your new office."

Wong Bongerok's sentence echoed in Anya''s thoughts. "...cleared of all suspicion regarding the riots...no basis for any penalties whatsoever...this court recommends that Anya Jenkins be assigned responsibilities and salary consistent with her power and demonstrated ability..." It was all bribery, of course, but the right sides had done the bribing.

"This used to be your office," Anya observed. It had Ayesha all over it.

"It did," the woman agreed. "I headed the Convention on Demons long before I was also given charge of its superconvention. Good luck in the role, not that you should need it."

"What happens with the Bronze Faction now?" Their leader might be dead, but they were far too entrenched to just wither away.

"I'm sure you'll find out. You report to Righteous Tsunami in a couple of days once you're settled in here. He'll keep you posted, no doubt, though he's certainly no hardliner." Ayesha picked up a satchel of papers. "My guess is that Ahn-Aru--she's their leader now--will argue that the Realm has to be dismantled slowly to prevent chaos. She's likely correct, but you can imagine the kind of foot-dragging that will ensue."

"I have a great imagination, so yes, definitely. I expect a good deal of annnoyance." Anya pasted her nameplate onto the desk.

"Just keep in mind, we didn't put you in this position to fail, but even so you're very much in a sink-or-swim situation, far more so than normal for a new Sidereal. You're an Elder and we have no option but to treat you as such."

Anya laughed. "In other words, I have what I wanted and now I'm paying for it." It was a fate she could live with.

**Chapter 27--Welcome to the New Age**

"You seem more comfortable than I expected at first," Leviathan rumbled.

Xander was examining himself in the mirror again. The resemblance Amyana had had to him was more than superficial, yet less than he had thought at first. She was shorter and wider than he, and not just in the hips. There was the hint of a point to her ears, apparently a tiny mutation. "She was my previous incarnation," he said after a few moments.

Leviathan shrugged. "You'd be surprised how little that matters to some of us. Actually, though, I meant as Admiral. I wasn't sure of you at first, but I figured you'd either grab for more power or get embarrassed and try to shrink back into the woodwork. You have a better balance than most Solars, I'd say. You accept authority that comes your way but don't try to seize it unless someone else is undeserving."

Xander strolled back to bed. His hips swayed more like this, but he was quickly ceasing to notice. "Not many Solars can handle being second to a Lunar?"

"Very, very few," came Leviathan's booming laughter. "In the long run, you probably shouldn't either, but you know enough to wait and learn."

Xander sat down on the bed. "You think I should be in charge of Luthe?"

"Ultimately? Yes. By mounting a coup against your friend right now? Of course not." Leviathan grunted and sat up. "Authority is what you make of it. The way I see it, if she defers to you and asks your advice, if she values your input, what's a title matter? But not everyone sees it that way."

"So, um...speaking of advice...what do you think I should do next?'

Leviathan raised an eyebrow. "Work on your public speaking and confidence. Oh, you mean as admiral of Luthe? Prepare for confrontation with Skullstone by expanding your reign. You don't have to go terrorize the natives with a First Age navy if you prefer. Diplomacy is power too, and no doubt you're better at it than I was at your age."

"What about superpower-wise?"

"Super--? Interesting phrase. I would focus on expanding your basic competence for now, both physical and mental. And...did you say once that you had been split into two people?"

"What can I say? I guess there's not enough of me to go around."

Leviathan sighed, a great, deep, heavy sigh. "There are simple ways to resist that, for a Solar. Unless you want the Wyld to make you sprout extra arms or turn you into a puppet, you need to learn them."

*****

"This is so absolutely non-funny! There is no fun in this. There is anti-fun! If fun met this there would totally be an explosion!"

Shaia sighed. "Well, now you know not to poke strange Wyld artifacts. Especially when they look like eggs or cocoons."

Willow's only contribution was a strange humorless snicker.

"You stop that." Buffy fiddled with her yellow yarn hair, using all four fingers. Her skin was fuzzy all over and she had no real nose, only a slight ridge leading down to her broad dead-end mouth. "How am I supposed to rule Gem as a muppet?"

"I'm certain your powers will work just as well as they did before," Shaia mused. "So you look odd. What of it?"

"Aren't people afraid of the Wyld for things like this?" Tara asked.

Shaia smiled enigmatically. "Let her practice. Buffy can handle it."

"I could try to change you back," Willow said tonelessly, "but I'm still working to get a handle on the new stuff." The big black display had faded, but her hair and eyes were still jet, and the black taint seemed to have spread further through her veins. It was just one more thing to stress about. "I wouldn't want to make you all floppy and, y'know, inanimate."

"Are you trying to give me a wiggins, Will?" Wasn't what had happened bad enough?

"Scout," said Shaia suddenly. Mnemon's forces were in the process of encircling Gem. The South was the last open approach, but it wouldn't be open much longer.

Buffy groaned and went limp, letting Shaia pick her up. Somehow Shaia had made a convincing little girl three times since they snuck out of Yu-Shan through a secret portal in the depths of the Violet Bier of Sorrows. It seemed to be a Sidereal thing. Willow just claimed to be sick. She _seemed_ sick, especially during the day.

This scout was particularly odd-looking, dressed in a long heavy trenchcoat in the permanent oppressive summer heat and a birdlike mask straight from a medieval painting. Shaia made a strangled noise in her throat. "They look like one of those plague doctors," Willow muttered.

The scout homed in on them unerringly. Perhaps not so strange; there was no one else around and they were in the open. But the peculiar figure seemed to be moving very purposefully toward them.

No. Toward Willow. "You," its voice rasped. "The Walker acted as the Neverborn wished in Exalting you. That does not mean _I_ will let you go your own way. The mouth of the Void calls you to cast your name into Oblivion."

"Like hell," Willow began.

"Nothing like it at all," the stranger (who was clearly not a scout) breathed. "Hell is paradise compared to the lip of the Void, where the Neverborn are entombed."

"For what it's worth," Buffy said, giving up the pretense, "hell's no five-star resort."

The stranger gave a start at Buffy's sudden animation but showed no real fear. She merely turned back to Willow after a moment. "The Neverborn themselves allied with the Yozis to bring us about. Be sure that it is their ends that you bring about when you work with Green Sun Princes and not merely your own petty desires."

"I bet you threw your name in right away," Buffy began. "So what do we call you?"

"I am known as Weeping Raiton Cast Aside." That rasp was incredibly smug.

"So tell me something. How is that not just another name?" Buffy stepped back and waited for a moment, but there was no explosion, real or metaphorical. "Well, Weeping Raichu, Willow, Tara, and Shaia are with me, and I've got an appointment with Mnemon's army. So unless you want to join the massacre...which is honestly fine with me; come right along...please won't you kindly step out of the way so I don't have to kick your ass?"

To Buffy's surprise, Raiton tilted their head to one side to think a moment, then nodded. "I have nowhere to be for a few weeks. A massacre would suit me well."

*****

_When you obey Weeping Raiton Cast Aside you obey us. When you disobey Weeping Raiton--_

_**Then we're gonna disobey the both of you!** _

_Everyone shut up! Please!_

Willow didn't want to ignore Tara. She didn't want to ignore Buffy. She didn't even really want to ignore the others. Her head was just...so...full. She could barely hear herself feel, let alone think, between the constant ranting mumble of the Neverborn and the fight-the-power rhetoric of the voice that called itself Salina. She needed quiet, but she needed it inside her head, not outside.

She'd made a horrible bargain. No wonder the Walker in Darkness couldn't get any use out of this Exaltation. The best it had been had been when she unleashed the lightning on the gods. The Sidereals would have been even better, only then she'd be dead and the whispers would never stop again.

"...still love you no matter what."

"I know," Willow said. "I love you too. I always will." The aching void at her center gaped wider, the gap between her and all the living. Was this how vampires felt?

The dessicating wind that had been following Willow since reaching the desert grew hotter and drier still. Tara in particular huddled beneath her cloak, trying to ward off the blowing sand that threatened to suck the moisture out of her like blood.

"Let us in," Buffy demanded. The fiery crown flickered around her velvet brow, and the gate guards hurried to obey. Maybe they knew her, or perhaps they were simply compelled.

Was Willow going to end like that, only able to relate to the living with her commands? Her veins felt drier the more the blackness spread. California mummy girl. That was what she was becoming.

Buffy seemed to have tired of trying to hide her condition. When anyone balked at obeying a three-foot puppet, she gave fire-crowned orders or just made a display of power. "Take me to the throne room. Now!" An attempt at creating another double had produced only another living doll, enraging her to the point of letting the terrified double crumble to dust like a vampire. She'd been remorseful afterwards, but that didn't do the clone any good.

"I don't think I want to be an Exalt," Tara said softly. "Not even a Solar. There's just too much...turmoil. Everything feels broken, even around Xander. It's not worth it."

 _Nothing is worth it. Nothing has worth. All the force wasted in creating...all that we hoarded to ourselves...worthless..._ Willow shivered. The wind had followed her inside. Granite walls flaked off dust as she passed.

*****

Buffy had to know. Surely she knew.

"Shaia" increasingly found her old identity dissipating like fog. No matter how she trained, though, she was still unable to retain her understanding of Sidereal martial arts on reverting to her true self. Therefore, her undermind demanded, she had to remain Shaia. She Who Lived in Her Name required the secret powers. They had to be hers, at whatever cost. If Shaia could remember clearly who she had been, maybe she could pit that self against Her demands, but that knowledge was withering under the desire to ruin the Cult of the Illuminated, which could also only be done as Shaia. Though if she could only stop being Shaia, that would stop mattering. Something...something else would matter again.

As if all that was not bad enough, She was not even pleased by the arts Shaia knew. Whenever she assumed Quicksilver Hand of Dreams form, her coadjutor rose up in fury that chilled Shaia's mind to ice.

If Buffy would just confront her, she would have reason to throw off the false identity and become himself again. Yet Buffy pretended to the lie, pretended to see only Shaia, no doubt convinced her mission was of overriding importance to the Reclamation. Which, of course, it was.

The other Buffy breathed a sigh of relief as they entered the throne room. "Dunno what happened to you, but I've got to let you take over. Day in, day out, nothing but strategy sessions. I can't handle any more. I need parties and a shopping spree. Can I have a shopping spree?"

The puppet's eyes rolled. "Do I look like I'm in any shape to take over? You've got to hang in there just a little longer. Have you followed the advice I left you?"

"Cannon emplacements, traps in rings, troop rotation...I think so. How do you remember all that stuff?"

"All those Slayer powers we hated," the puppet said. "Still hate 'em every couple of hours, but I never realized how much they made me what I am till I made you."

She needed to get Willow to the island. Willow would further upset the Cult. Only doing that would enrage Weeping Raiton, who was no doubt hoping to turn Gem into an abbatoir before taking Willow to meet the Void.

She needed to be himself again. She could remember who he was if she could do that.

"Carry me to the walls," the doll said. "I need to see how Mnemon is setting up."

"She's gonna pen us in so we'll never get out," the double said. "I think we made a mistake."

The doll laughed a harsh, wry laugh that surely belonged to no childrens' toy. "Can't be done," she said. "Wonder if anyone's ever tried to use this power on a strategic scale before. It'll work, though. Trust me."

*****

"We need to know what she used on Kejak." Nazri stood across the table from Ahn-Aru and Ayesha. "No matter what we personally thought of the man, a toxin that could even partially depower an Exalt is a threat to all of us."

"I'm not sure we have the means to find out," Ayesha worried. "A few divine witnesses apparently thought they saw Buffy gathering ambrosia. Our security measures regarding Exalted prisoners need a serious upgrade."

"If we knew what she used," Ahn-Aru suggested, "we could kill those two birds with one stone."

"Perhaps," Nazri agreed. "But we have to keep closer track of who worships any prisoners we take. If Buffy created that toxin from ambrosia, we have to ensure that the knowledge of how to manipulate the stuff is held far closer. Else we'll have demons and ghosts and raksha getting ahold of raw prayerstuff whenever they're taken prisoner."

"Summary execution," Ayesha said. "No non-Exalt prisoners in Yu-Shan, period. Maybe no prisoners there period if we can get the censors to cooperate."

"Harsh measures," Ahn-Aru mused.

"For a harsh Age," Nazri responded. "She may well be right."

*****

_I hope Dawn is all right. The idea of her running off with Glory of all people freaks me out, and I'd have tried to stop her...except..._

_Buffy is close to the edge now if she isn't over it. I saw her attack Dawn. I even managed to ask her about it on the way here. I mean, in a way she's right...but I was afraid she'd break my arm for asking. She did break Dawn's._

_This kind of power isn't good for us. I know...I sound like my dad...but this is more than that. Buffy mind-controls people without even meaning to now. She frets about her body changing, but I'm more worried about her mind. Fred can shapeshift, and I don't think she's any worse for it. I'm more worried that she suddenly has a thing for Willow. I didn't think she was even bi..._

_I know. I shouldn't just assume._

_I'm going to have to find more paper. Xander is sweet as always. Kinda glad I'm gay right now, though...I'm almost afraid to be around him any longer...that if he actually paid me any attention I'd discover it didn't matter what's normal for me. Being with Willow isn't much better now, though._

_I don't want to end up like that. I think I'd rather die here. Please don't let those be my options._

*****

"Your mind is wandering, Winifred. You can't allow that to happen where sorcery is concerned."

Fred raised her hands again. "I'm sorry, Sage. I found my mate is all. And not only is she hundreds of miles away, she's Abyssal." Beat. "Also a she. I thought it was the weed the one time that happened."

The Sage shrugged his narrow shoulders. "I certainly wouldn't know. I've never met my mate in this life, nor felt desire for anyone."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Fred waited for the Sage to cast again, but nothing happened.

"I'm not. I have no need for distractions of that nature," the Sage said. "I value love, of course, in the abstract, but for my own part I do well without."

"Well, anyway...I found mine, Xander found his. That just leaves Buffy I guess."

The Sage began to gesture with his hands. "I feel sorry for whoever has an Infernal for a mate. As I do for you, Dreamer Shahan-ya. But there is work to be done. Again!"

Fred lifted her hands and prepared Emerald countermagic. Sooner or later she'd get it.

*****

Ma-Ha-Suchi studied the runes in bafflement. He must have made a mistake, but how? The rites of Luna ought to be infallible.

He had no qualms whatsoever about drinking his mate's Heart's Blood. But how could he have _two_ of them?


	2. Beauty Without Brains (Three Times)

Amy made her way noisily across the tabletop, carrying seeds and shreds of meat, squeaking all the way.

"Her joints hurt," Faith said helplessly. "I think we're runnin' out of time. _She's_ runnin' out of time."

"How do you know?" Harmony asked.

Faith shrugged. "You can't hear it?" The vampire shrugged back. "Well, trust me. I just know, ok?"

"I'm sorry," Kate said from across the table. "I've got all my contacts hunting for magical artifacts, but apparently reversing a transformation is about a hundred times as hard when you're not the caster."

"An' our caster hasn't got the brains to do it herself," Faith concluded gloomily, "because she's a rat."

"I'm sure you'll think of something," B-bot said brightly as Amy began constructing something out of chewed-up wood.

Faith put a hand to her forehead. "Look,I'm glad you believe in me an' all, but let's face it: I'm stupid. B, she had the potential but not the time to study. I'm not like her. Sad but true."

"Don't put yourself down that way," Shoat began. "You can do things. Maybe there's--"

"Yeah," Faith muttered. "I can fly. Like that solves anything. It's cool an' all, don't get me wrong, but it ain't gonna help Amy." She reached out and shifted the slats in the maze. Faith had been worried it'd be insulting, but Amy enjoyed the challenge. Faith could tell.

Amy began to squeak noisily. "It's not over till it's over," Harmony insisted.

Faith groaned. "Harm, you of all people ought to know. We ain't got much else in common, but you an' me...huh? What's that?" She leaned forward to listen to the furiously-squeaking rat. "Leave? Who's leavin'? I don't get--"

The tabletop erupted in a flash of light, and something struck Faith on the chin hard enough to knock her down.

She looked up at a head full of white hair straggling around a wrinkled face, one with dark eyes full of shocked awareness. Faith and Amy pushed themselves up simultaneously.

"Fuck," Amy said, staring at her flabby, wrinkly arms. "Fuck fuck fuck." And she burst into tears.

 **Chapter 28 -- Beauty Without Brains (Three Times)  
**  
"She wins," Amy mumbled. "My mother wins again."

"Huh?" Faith couldn't remember anything about Amy's mother. Probably they'd never met.

"My mother stole my body a few years ago. She was going to be young again, and I guess I was gonna be old and die. Buffy killed her after switching us back, but she got the last laugh anyway." Amy wasn't crying any more; she seemed to be all cried out.

"We'll get you back to normal," Faith began.

"How are you this stupid?" Amy shouted. "This is normal! It's not some aging curse. I lived my life, I just lived it as a rat, a hundred times too fast! Do you have any idea the kind of mag--?" Abruptly she cut off, swaying back and forth, and Faith caught her with the hand she'd been about to use for slapping. Gentle slapping, but there was only so much she could put up with.

"I'm sorry," Faith said sharply. "You wanna last long enough to find the kind of magic it takes? Keep your damn cool."

Amy let out a soft whimper, but then she seemed to pull herself together. "I wish I knew how you did what you did."

"Me? You changed yourself back." Faith tried not to outright scowl; she was confused, not angry.

"I couldn't do it before. It's like...over the last month or so my head started clearing and I could think again. I could understand you talking, even though I couldn't understand anyone else, and you could understand me. I didn't know Slayers could have familiars." Amy stumbled, and Faith had to catch her.

"We c--" Faith began, then started over. "I didn't either. But then I only found out a few weeks ago that we can fly, too."

Amy's head whipped up. "Buffy never told me she could fly."

"Hell, I figure she didn't know either. It's just cool that I can do something she can't." Faith grinned and glanced at Amy. They'd barely met, back when she and Buffy were the Chosen Two, but Amy was cool and...hrm...about eighty years old right now. Even if Faith tried she'd probably just give Amy a heart attack. Damn it.

Amy shrugged weakly. "If you ask me, I always thought the level of mystic energy Buffy gave off was kinda wasted on just super strength and speed. I couldn't guess at what else Slayers could do, though. Anyway...thanks. This sucks ass, but I probably have a few years left. Better than the couple of weeks I'm pretty sure I was looking at. Sorry if I still sound bitter."

"Ya got reason to," Faith acknowledged. "Maybe we can still fix the rest. Who knows what else a Slayer can do?"

Maybe it was time she started figuring that out.

*****

"Kate, left! B-bot, right!" It was a guess. Supposedly the Slayer had always been a loner till B, but Buffy's friends had fought just fine by the time she met them, and they hadn't had superpowers yet. Maybe Red, a little. "Shoat, bring the zees up the back way!"

The Slayer was supposed to be a combat monster. What if she had some kind of natural tactical sense to go with the physical stuff? Faith tossed Harmony the sword. "Up the stairs, goofball. You're with me."

Their raid on Wolfram and Hart had been too little too late. By the time they found a scandal Kate could leak--something that wasn't just demons for the Weekly World News--Lilah had already made hash of her connections. She had some sort of intuitive feel for social kung fu, seemed like, and Faith knew she couldn't match that.

So it was back to street level, busting up some kind of vampire cult--there was always another one of those to go around--that was turning homeless people and using them as suicide bombers. Faith had the nagging feeling that she was missing something--that she wasn't playing the game on Lilah's level--but how could she?

The vamps started to fall back, flanked and struggling to retreat. Suddenly zombies began boiling out of the elevators. Okay, something was going right. Maybe she had something when it came to tactics. "Amy, now!"

Fireball. Amy's magic had to be used carefully or she'd have a heart attack or something, but she wasn't really _weak_.

Only, it didn't work. Some of the vamps must've been older, cause the fireball didn't just ash them. And the heat forced her and Harm to retreat while the survivors made for the water coolers. The zombies didn't cope well with being on fire either, plus they cut off the easy escape route through the elevator.

Long story short, it was a clusterfuck. At least half the older vamps escaped into the sewers while the rest were fighting. The cult'd probably be back by next week.

Yeah, she'd been stupid to even think she could be smart. Faith was a dumb Southie, as much white trash as any hick from Bugfuck, Georgia, and she was never going to get any better. She just didn't have it in her.

*****

"Gotta admit, you came a long way to find me, Captain Cornfed." Faith hoped she was doing a good job of covering. Her one encounter with Riley Finn hadn't exactly inspired positive memories.

"Longer than you think," he said bluntly. "My unit's been in South America. I heard the bad news. We can't let someone like Lilah Morgan steal the election."

"So you came to find the Slayer. Well, good judgement. I'm already on the case." She struck a dramatic pose. Faith really didn't want a second go with him, but he was at least easy on the eyes.

"Actually I was trying to find Kate Lockley. Her agency's worked with supernatural threats before, and honestly we need all the help we can get." He hesitated. "Er, not saying a Slayer won't come in handy too."

"Tell her the rest," said an unfamiliar woman's voice from behind the big slab o' beefcake.

"I was getting to that. Faith, this is my wife Samantha Finn. About three days after we heard the news, every woman in the unit, even the support personnel, plus a few of the locals, went full-on Charlie McGee."

"Charlie What?" That wasn't any military slang Faith was familiar with.

"Firestarter."

"Oh. Right, still looking to see th--whoa!" Sam had stepped forward and to the right a bit where Faith could actually see her. Her hair was flame-red and shifting around on its own; her eyes were glowing orange; and her skin was so red it looked sunburnt. Faith reached out and poked her shoulder; Sam just sighed and added, "Yeah, touch the hair too. All ninety-nine of us are on medical leave till they figure out what it is."

"Glad I'm not military. What it is, you're hot chicks with superpowers, and the sooner they put you back on the job the better."

Sam glanced at Riley. "Might be one genuine issue with that. How many times did I jump your bones on the trip bsck?"

"Five. You tried another seven but I was worn out." Riley grinned, but the grin waa tired.

"Yeah," Sam said. "Thus the problem. Ninety-nine of us, all horny as hell and everyone who's not a hundred percent straight can't keep their hands off each other."

Faith grunted. "And the problem is?"

*****

Sam unfolded the newspaper. "So now you and the vamps you were fighting are competing terrorist cells. Shit, this is bad. Lilah's riding higher and higher in the polls."

"God _damn_ it!" Faith slammed her head down on the table. "How am I so stupid?"

Kate grabbed her by the shoulders. "Only got the one desk. Faith, none of us saw it. It's not your fault."

"I had a feeling," Faith muttered. "Something wasn't right. I knew I was missing something."

"Then you saw more than I did," Amy quavered. "And at least I'm not senile."

"The way I heard," Riley said, "Amy was pretty smart. Maybe you should trust your instincts, Faith."

"Yeah, maybe. But I didn't, see?" Faith pounded the desk with her fist this time. "If I were smart...."

Shoat grabbed Faith's hand, and Faith felt a surge of fear/anger/revulsion. She tried to rip free, and after only a moment she did. "I saw it too," Shoat said, almost inaudibly. "I didn't say anything either. I'm supposed to be smart, too, so what's that make me?"

*****

Faith lay awake listening to Sam and Riley bang. It wasn't really that loud, but she could hear them anyway. Hell...she could smell them. Sam smelled like incense, aside from the usual. They weren't even on the same floor. Daredevil never had this problem.

"They're pretty loud, aren't they?" Faith jumped out of bed, smacking her head on the chest of drawers. "Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you."

"Damnit, Harm. Here I am thinking how much my supersenses suck, and I get snuck up on by the clumsiest vamp in existence."

"I'm getting better," Harmony whispered. It was self-pitying, but not quite a whine. "They're keeping me awake. I miss Spike."

Faith did her best not to laugh. "You and Spike? Really?" She would say Harm wasn't his type, but the dude was _shallow_. Harmony had tits; she was his type. In fairness....

"He's cute," Harm murmured. "He was my Blondie Bear."

"You want to forget him?" Faith gave the vamp her best come-hither grin.

"Um, yeah, but not with you. Er...no offense?"

Faith sighed, lay back down, and put a pillow over her head.

"Sorry?"

Faith lay there waiting. Eventually Harm would go back to bed.

"Hell," Harmony said, "I'm bored. Got any plastic?"

The pillow came down. Faith's eyebrows went up. "You serious? Of course. More'n one. Wanna share?"

"Let's be louder than them."

*****

"I've been reading about being smart," Harmony said two hours later. "It's something you can practice and get better at."

"Huh," Faith said. She wasn't trying to be rude; she was just kinda not wanting to talk. Or move, just yet. She let one hand flop down onto Harm's thigh. That was more than they'd touched so far, but the vampire didn't complain.

"If you can think of what a smarter person would do, and be right, then you have to be at least as smart as they are," Harm mused. "Or else you'd be wrong. Right?"

"Guess so," Faith mumbled.

"I try to think of what you'd do," Harm said. "It's worked so far."

"Stop it," Faith said lazily. "You're gonna make me teary-eyed."

"Sorry," the vampire said. "Know you're tired. I should get some sleep too." She rolled over and soon began to snore.

In the darkness, Faith sighed and wiped her eyes.


	3. Absolute Power Brings Absolute Responsibility?

"It means something like...'Dark Lord of the Crowd of Gods'," Willow explained. "But there's more to it than that. Qemetiel is like...the event horizon of Decreation. Of Oblivion. Anything that gets closer stops existing. The 'crowd of gods' are the entities trapped at that boundary, feeding off the debris that falls in to stay out themselves."

"Clever," Raiton mused, "but too ambitious. You are not lord over the Neverborn, only their servant. Still...I would hear more of these...'qlippoth'. This...'dark qabala'."

For all that Raiton claimed she was just standing by here, idle except to help prepare for the massacre that'd begin in another week or so, Willow suspected she was staying out of her own ambition. She was the most powerful known Abyssal, the hand of the Neverborn in resolving disputes between Deathlords. "Well...it's more like 'dark sephiroth'. The qlippoth are the discarded husks of parts of existence that didn't work out. Though some say they're like afterbirth, never meant to live long." **...broken shells...empty vessels...shattered dreams...**

Willow thought perhaps Raiton wanted to be a Deathlord herself. And Willow as her first Deathknight. As a sort of understudy or assistant. If she spoke the truth, the current Deathlords weren't reallly interested in destroying the world, only in power. Raiton, though...she was devoted to the cause. _A true believer in hierarchy, even in death._ Salina's "voice" was full of derision. At least she and Willow were learning to cooperate. One less competing set of thoughts in her head was of the good.

"You say this knowledge is forbidden," Raiton rasped. In the back of Willow's head the Neverborn muttered something distantly akin to approval.

"Well, not only are you not supposed to study qabala till you're forty, I'm not supposed to at all. I'm a girl. Not that I let that stop me." Girls deserved to understand the world as much as guys. As for the age restrictions, she was smarter than your average _eighty_ year-old scholar, so there.

Raiton smiled thinly, cruelly. "The sephiroth. You called them 'the tree of life'. From the diagram you showed me."

Willow nodded. That was a standard and very basic metaphor.

"You are the Scholar Hanged From the Tree of Life." Raiton spoke it as a pronouncement, not an observation. Willow had been given...not a name, but a title. The sandstorm around the city howled louder--among other, more tangible, penalties--if she acknowledged the name Willow, let alone spoke it.

The title was a curse, too, and Raiton knew it, though almost no one else here would. One of the passages of the Torah--a well-known one, since Christianity had borrowed it--said anyone hanged from a tree was under God's curse.

Well...Willow wasn't exactly a faithful Jew herself these days. And if Christians could appropriate a curse into a blessing, so could she. "Cool."

**Chapter 29--Absolute Power Brings Absolute Responsibility?**

Raiton released her to wander the palace. Willow was used to evil overlords living in luxury--even the Master had only avoided it symbolically, waiting for the day humanity was overthrown. Raiton lived in a bare cell here, disdaining decorations, food, even a bed and chair. Willow didn't think she had a party planned for the apocalypse, either.

Willow wished she could feel the same. The pretty girl waiting in the hall only made her feel a great howling emptiness inside. Along with the love; she was forbidden that, but not quite denied it. Tara leapt up and clung to her.

"You could join me, y'know?" Raiton sneered whenever Tara was around but had made no move to separate her from Willow. She said Willow could learn on her own.

"I can't understand a word she says," Tara reminded her. "It's this...hissing gibberish. She hates me. That's all I need to know."

Disturbingly, though the Yozis and Neverborn were enemies--or at best, allies with teeth clenched in mutual hatred--Buffy could understand Weeping Raiton, as could Angel, Spike, tbe neomah, and the akuma who helped Buffy. Even DoppelBuffy understood, though she had none of Buffy's other powers. With Buffy still a puppet, DoppelBuffy still ruled in her place, in name at least.

"You know I still love you, babe? Right?" Willow leaned over and kissed Tara with her dry lips. For the moment, her appearance was growing no worse; Willow just looked like a dedicated goth. The black taint still filled her veins, though, and inside she felt dry and empty.

"I love you too," Tara said faintly, sadly. "I wish you hadn't done this."

"Tara," Willow protested, "I'd have died. Raiton thinks death is better than life, but surely--"

"Yes, Will, life is good, but taking it from other people to stay alive yourself isn't! You're...you're...you might as well be a vampire, Willow." Tara must have seen something in Willow's expression that frightened her, because suddenly she burst out, "P-please, Will, I'm so glad I still have you, I'm just afraid of the price. C-come on, let's go get something to eat. Buffy's got really good cooks here."

"I...was going to just make sandwiches," Willow said hesitantly. "We need to talk strategy with Buffy." Tara probably wanted more than just a meal--she'd been upset by the luxury Buffy still lived in as Despot, even allowing for her reforms. She wouldn't ask about the cooks now if it were just about food.

Indeed, Tara immediately drooped. "You always found time to spend with me at home, Will. If you stayed alive to be with me, then b-be with me! D-don't pay the price and then not--"

Willow's heart shattered and that empty, aching void poured itself inside. She could feel the scouring storm raging outside the palace walls, could feel food in the pantries drying to inedible crust and hide. She could feel death, death everywhere. Willow needed life, needed it like a drowning woman needed air, and she reached out for it in its nearest form.

Her lips touched Tara's, and the world blew away in the screaming wind.

*****

"I chose a life in shadow/  
Rather than leave you alone/  
I knew it'd make you sad, though/  
And that chills my soul to the bone/  
I had no choice/  
Couldn't let you lose my voice!/  
I'm under your--"

The argument over Gem and siege warfare halted briefly as music swelled in the nearby hall. Buffy looked up. Was that Willow singing? Willow couldn't sing worth a damn. Sweet must have arrived ahead of schedule. That was okay; she needed him here.

The door burst open, and Willow and Tara spilled in half-dressed and carrying big hunks of meat. Of the two, Tara looked far more distressed--was that a vampire bite on her neck? Buffy was going to have to give Spike a talking-to--but Willow's black eyes gave her a manic expression nothing like her usual friendly humor.

"Shoo!" Willow hissed at the Council. "Horny now!"

"Will! Kinda busy here? As, uh, you're s'posed to be?" She expected trouble from Willow, but along the lines of more complaints that her siege preparations were strategically unsound, not sex on a random table.

Willow grinned broadly, though her expression remained subtly off. "Hey there! You can stay if you wanna, I don't mind, but this doesn't seem like your thing."

"Willow. Mnemon is closing in on us with a Realm legion or two and we need to talk about what you can do to help. You're Exalted now and you're still one helluva witch." Willow ignored her.

"Willow," Tara said carefully. "If you want to have more time with me--if you want to learn about the Exaltations, or anything else--we have to help Buffy. You care about her too, right?"

Willow sighed. For a moment Buffy thought she would deny it, just shake her head and go back to undressing Tara. Then she shrugged. "Okay. If I gotta. What do I need to do?"

*****

Dawn stepped carefully over the threshold and into the Wyld part of Xu-Lak. It felt incredibly dangerous; it felt like home. The towers over here were just as fantastic as the ones in the godly side--many of them were more impressive--but they did things like branch wildly or mirror themselves in the sky or float a few stories above ground. A few were made of peculiar substances like mist, gold, or chocolate.

"I guess the first thing I need to ask is why we don't like the gods or the Primordials or...well, much of anybody." This whole world seemed like a chaotic mess of competing factions.

Glory winced. "Seriously? You want me to be the Exposition Fairy? Well...if you insist." She took a deep breath.

"The whole universe was in a random chaotic state/  
Then merely seven thousand years ago the Primordials started...wait/  
Autochthon developed tools/  
The Exalted host began to rule/  
The Dragonblooded lost their cool/  
We had a war (they kicked our asses out)/  
From thaumaturgy to necromancy/  
Should've been a passing fancy/  
It all started here in ths Wyld."

That should have conveyed almost nothing to Dawn, yet somehow, thinking over it, she realized that somehow she had a vague outline of the history of Creation (and its associated dimensions) in her head.

Glory scowled. "Did I just burst into song? I did, didn't I? Someone's getting too big for his broaches."

"Who?" There was someone out there who could make people sing spontaneously?

Glory snickered. "First lesson, Summers' Day. Wrong. Question."

"You've said something like that before--"

"And I'll say it again. It's time to take the big leap, kiddo. You're you. That's the problem. Stop being you. Get on in, the fire's fine." Glory spread out her arms and leaned backward into space. "No net," she said, and popped like a soap bubble.

Dawn made a little eep in her throat, and Glory reappeared, seemingly unchanged, on the other side of her. "Boo!" Glory said, and her forehead crumpled as she vamped out. "Just for funsies," she emphasized immediately. "Your turn."

Dawn took a deep breath, held out her hands, and watched them dissolve into mist. The vapor dissipated as the effect crawled its way up her arms. She felt all of herself still there; she felt her body evaporating.

Her brain vanished and she became nothing at all.

*****

"You have to understand how important this is," Buffy insisted. "This is war. You helped me with the Mayor. This is umpteen times that. Mnemon--"

"Bored now." Willow leaned back in her chair. "I want to help you, Buffy, I really do, but why not just...leave? Mnemon only wants to attack Gem because you're the Despot now."

"Mnemon wants to attack Gem 'cause she's a petty, stupid...despot," Buffy argued. "She wants power. She doesn't care about these people or even that I'm supposedly serving the Yozis. I leave, Gem falls to pieces, she takes over and runs my people into the ground."

"Your people?" Willow sounded doubtful.

Tara corrected her. "It doesn't matter why Buffy took over Gem. She's their ruler now and she's not just going to abandon them."

"Buffy, did anyone ever tell you you have an overdeveloped sense of responsibility?" Willow shook her head and sighed loudly.

Inside, Buffy seethed, but she just said, "No actually, just the opposite. In fact I'm pretty sure that's why I'm an Infernal."

"As opposed to dead?" Willow rolled her eyes at that. "I know you'd rather have been a Solar, but that wasn't an option. Well, guess what? You're hero enough for ten Solars. How many apocalypses have you stopped now?"

"Think the figure was two dozen," Buffy said tonelessly.

Tara wore a pained expression. "Buffy, you don't have anything to prove. I agree that you should defend Gem, but whatever you used to be, you became a hero a long time ago."

*****

Well. Trusting Glory had been  
the dumbest mistake ever. She must not have been a raksha after all and now she didn't exist any more.

There was a serious flaw in that logic, wasn't there? I think, therefore...

_I am._

Dawn Summers had stopped existing. But Dawn Summers had been an illusion the whole time anyway. What was left was whatever she had been before Dawn. The Key...whatever that was. And now she could become whatever she wanted.

What _did_ she want?

That was the question. She was blind, deaf, mute; she was none of those things, not even she. What did a being like herself want?

She chose a variation on a theme. Different facial features, hair color, clothing style...name: Dawn Rosenberg. Sheila was her negligent mother; Ira her reactionary father. (Something odd about that--Willow looked nothing like her dad. Strange.) Much less money to go around; Dawn wore big sis' hand-me-downs, even less in style than they had been when they were Will's. Awfully uncool.

Glory clapped uncertainly. "Ok. It's a first try. You're doing it."

Dawn discarded the phantasms of memories. She'd lived as Buffy's sister most of a year; that tale still seemed awfully real. It wasn't, though. Dawn Harris? No...she'd probably be an abused child and that was no fun at all. And absolutely not Dawn Maclay. Wait...

She was Dawn...Clark. Older, in her late thirties...still attractive but far more mature. Heavier, just a bit, and only a fraction taller. Still a sister. Joyce's. Buffy's...she was Buffy's aunt. A new set of memories that dizzied her for a moment, a funhouse mirror of the old ones. Buffy wouldn't know these; they'd never been made part of her.

Glory pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows. "No need to be a child if you don't wanna. I can dig it."

One more try. This one fought her, though. She dissolved but the new shape refused to form.

Glory still seemed aware of her. "Stories have their own logic. Get creative, kay?"

Taller. Dark hair, almost black. Young-looking but not young. She'd been his favorite. She couldn't be a vampire, not yet at least, that was the trouble...the shanshu prophecy. She'd been human a matter of months, shaped like an eighteen-year-old but with three hundred years of memory. (Ouch!) Dawn, no last name she could recall...Dawn of County Galloway. Liam's bratty sister, turned to be Angelus' partner in crime. Darla hadn't approved but the deed was done.

"Now we're talking," Glory said, beaming. "Hanging onto the sister aesthetic, but you're rocking it."

Dawn sagged heavily against a wall. She was actually doing it, changing not just her shape but her _mind_. But Glory was right: she was limiting herself. A lot. Part of her--the part that had been Buffy's sister for most of a year of real living and fifteen years' worth of memories--protested that there was nothing wrong with that. But other memories, however flimsy, were part of her now too. And Buffy had turned on her, had called her a worthless hateful thing.

Dawn let the fury pour out. No history this time, just an impulse. Muscles and fangs and claws; spiked armor and a sword. She was the thing that would kill Buffy Summers.

Glory yawned. "Cliche."

There was still enough mind behind the red rage--indeed, the more she did this the more artificial her feelings...felt--to let the new self dissolve.

Dawn dropped onto a couch languidly, filmy clothes folding around her body, apparently sensual but barely sketched in. Curves but little muscle. She raised a bunch of grapes to her mouth and began to nibble.

Glory snickered. "Avant-garde. Not lazy shaping; laziness as a shape. Not very practical, though. Still, you're getting the hang of it."

Her memories were still memories. There were things she wanted...had wanted...could want if she chose. She sculpted a self that looked something like her old one, but taller, a little more mature. Statuesque and powerful. Armor that molded itself to her body.

Glory raised her eyebrows again. "Are we going with the Seven Deadlies now? Mortals are so absurd sometimes. Well, an emotion is an emotion. Lust this time?"

Dawn laughed the rich laugh of self-satisfaction that came with this body. "Call it pride."

Xander didn't stand a chance.

*****

Tara put her hand down hard on the table, and everyone jumped. Especially her. "I'm getting tired of this, Buffy. It's been going on since we got here. I d-don't like your attitude and I d-don't like what it implies."

Buffy tilted her head and stared. "What--?"

"You stood up to my family to protect me. You didn't know they were lying yet. Y-you thought I was going to turn into a demon, a full-on maybe-eat-your-face demon. Why, if it bothers you so much about your powers?"

"But sweetie," Willow pointed out, "you weren't really--"

"That isn't the point, Willow." She turned back to Buffy. "What frightens you so much about your powers? That they're growing? They've been doing that since I've known you."

"They're changing me," Buffy hissed. "I was the one-and-only girl/  
The Chosen One, the good guy/  
Sure, I was a lonely girl/  
The question then was would I?/  
Walk away/  
Try to live my life/  
Forget about it all/  
Wait it out, maybe let the world die?"

Willow tried to get a word in edgewise, but Buffy overrode her. "Prophecy fulfilled, I did my part/  
I saved the world, it's done/  
Every Slayer knows that death's our art/  
Well, guess what, I've had one."

Buffy rose, plush skin tarnishing over. "We live, we die, we never get/  
to get too strong/  
They even have a rit--/  
ual to kill us if we live too long."  
Flickers of lantern-light danced from her metal second skin now as she pirouetted.

Tara danced into her path. "Look at you now/  
shining in the light!"

Buffy skipped easily aside, "See what my pow-/  
er really is: a blight?/  
I'm changing more than you know, more than you see/  
What's going to happen to my friends when nothing's left of me?"

She spun round only to come face to face with Tara, who seized her by the arms. Buffy could have broken her grip with a flick of her wrists.

"We don't care how you look," Tara sang.  
"A squid's my friend, a mummy's my girl/  
You could read a ram-horned demon like a book!/  
Be a hero, give it a whirl." Tara gave Buffy a shove down into one of the chairs. Somehow Buffy didn't resist the push.

"You're afraid power will change you? Already happened," Tara insisted. "You said so yourself: you were a flake. A rich little bitch girl who'd have made fun of Willow and not given me a second look. That's what being the Slayer's done to you. I'm not saying not to be careful about what you learn to do. I'm saying thst so far, _power's made you a better person_."

"But--"

"Stop! Please./  
How can you be so afraid of yourself/  
unless you lied/  
unless you were afraid of me?"

"It's not the same." Buffy sounded desperate now.

"Nothing is ever the same, Buffy. It's always going to be different, and you're always going to have to decide. But we're your friends...no, your family. We trust you to choose the right thing."

"Really?" Strange how the most powerful person in the room seemed the most miserable. Strange how she trusted Buffy more with power than her own girlfriend. Strange but true.

"Yes, Buffy. We really do."

*****

"So how's it feel?" Willow looked up into Spike's eyes. "Coming over to the dark side, I mean?"

"I don't see it like that at all," Willow said offhandedly. "I didn't kill her. She was already dead. Also, evil."

"Interesting way to put it. Buffy's not gonna like this, you know. Co-workers an' all that."

Willow pushed herself up from Garima's corpse. "Buffy's only involved in this because she has to be. She'll thank me. Think of it as...as a mercy kill. Garima stopped being anything but a meat puppet a long time ago."

Spike hopped up onto a table. "Oh, don't go looking to me for moral condemnation. I happen to think you did the smart thing. Just saying, being trapped inside my own head while you kill me? Not my idea of mercy. Now, question is, where do we put the body?"

Willow spread her hands. "Why hide it? We found it. Anyway..." she continued as black energies spilled from her, "...she'll come in handy."

Garima's corpse jerked its way upright.


	4. Day of the Lord

"He hates you, Grandmum," Drusilla lilted. "All of us, but especially you and Daddy."

Lilah sat up straight. "Who does, Dru?" There was no sign of Angel, hadn't been for months, but if someone with a grudge against Darla realized that she was inside Lilah's head? That could become a problem.

"He stinks of sunlight," was all Drusilla would say, though. That and, "He's been napping. What a bad boy, sleeping on the job."

Lilah clambered out of bed. The tiniest baby bump had appeared, yet her brief bout of morning sickness had already vanished. Small mercies. She was going to end up being sworn in while she could barely reach the Bible. Perhaps that was for the best, to be sure.

"So who's our next target?" The last couple of attempted releases had been disasters. One had splintered into a hundred shards or so, while another had vanished around the world. Going by the news reports, a child soldier in Uganda had possessed it for about five minutes before being shot down. As with Slayers, you still needed time and experience to learn how to use the things. It was loose now, and no one knew where.

_**Have you considered the kid who built that robot? Certifiable genius.** _

"Mears?" Lilah gave that some thought. "He's not far this side of Billy Blim. Do we really want to give him superpowers on top of what he's got already?"

_**He has two friends, right? The demonologist and the petty wizard? I propose we set up the crisis for any or all of the three. If Warren gets it, he's the best candidate and we find a way to keep him occupied. If it's one of the other two, great--they still have balls for taking over a small town.** _

Lilah stood there a few moments longer. "They're on the short list," she finally said. "Let's try and make some real heroes before we start unleashing the supervillains."

 _ **Suit yourself,**_ Darla grumped. _**We are gonna need a few people on our side eventually.**_

"Dear girl," Lilah chuckled, "we're going to be the government very soon. What patriotic hero would think of opposing us?"

*****

Blazing with light, the casing shattered, and released. The hunter crumpled to the floor.

"I'm sorry to tell you," the demon informed him, "something seems to have gone awry. Angelus has dropped off the map, and rumor has it Darla is dead. I'm sure a man of your talents can find other vampires to hunt down, however. Best of wishes."

"No," the hunter breathed. Only that. Denial was always a sad thing.

"It's quite true," he began, as the hunter surged to his feet. There was no ris--

A hand closed around his throat. "He is not dead," the hunter snarled. "Nor is she. I will track them to the ends of the Earth. Beyond, if I must."

The demon scrabbled helplessly at the hunter's impossible grip. No mere mortal could have held him, not even before he'd been cursed with this immaterial state. "How...how can you...you are only...?"

"Only a man?" The hunter bowed his head briefly. "I was. When you suspended me, I was only a man. I am still Daniel Holtz, demon." His fingers tightened, tightened, crushing Sahjian's neck. "But now...now, _I am the Dawn_."

*****

It was hard, not listening to Hungry.

Hungry was, just like she'd told Faith, the part that felt most like her. Usually, though, Harmony could distinguish two other selves. It was in all the Rationality self-help books to try, though she wasn't entirely sure why it should work.

Survivor was just that. She was pretty sure all vampires had a Survivor. Hers was maybe more vocal. For one thing, _her_ Survivor said things like, _Don't eat people unless you're completely certain no one else is around_ and _Don't fight Slayers without an overwhelming advantage._ After her attempts at getting an advantage had failed miserably, it was Survivor who'd said to skip town.

Sentimental seemed a lot less common. Sentimental said things like _Spare your old friends_ that most vamps would laugh at her for. Harmony wasn't sure how she'd gotten Sentimental, but she had figured out that it wasn't just a weakness. Sentimental, when she was in tight spots that Hungry and Survivor couldn't escape alone, made friends think twice before attacking. Not something you boasted about, but helpful.

Right now, Survivor was saying, _Remember that stake in your chest,_ while Hungry was grumbling and arguing _They're not here to see me._

 _You don't know that,_ Survivor explained impatiently. _The Slayer can fly and speak to animals. Either of those things could tip her off. You didn't know about them, so there may be more ways she could know._

 _You're right,_ Hungry said. _I should go hide somewhere until I'm crazy from starvation._

_That isn't helping and I never said that._

_Nice going,_ Hungry muttered. _The tasty one got away._ Sure enough, while Harmony argued with herself the healthy-looking businessman had vanished into the Wolfram  & Hart building. No demonic taint yet, but he'd be lucky to make it out in that condition.

 _He wouldn't have if you two didn't fight so much,_ Sentimental suggested irritably. _We're supposed to be on the same side: ours._

 _Point for the pretend human,_ Survivor reluctantly acknowledged. _Now get out of our decision-making process._

Maybe this sort of decision-making wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

*****

"So these are the security tapes. They show quite clearly the intruder breaking into one of our secured weapons caches, defeating our security personnel with ease, and then...this." A brilliant flare of apparent daylight filled the camera, and six wings unfolded from the intruder's back.

"A seraph," Lilah realized at once. "Come to judge us for our caches, perhaps?" Angelic manifestations were uncommon, but the universe did hold a few heavenly realms. Most were no more hospitable to humans than the hells. As for the weapons caches, they were a premium service Wolfram & Hart maintained for certain extraordinary clients. They were _supposed_ to be impregnable.

"A seraph wouldn't have any use for automatic weapons," Lindsay argued. "At least I wouldn't expect him to. Not too clear on the state of heaven these days." On paper, Lindsay was the CEO of Wolfram & Hart. On paper.

The intruder turned, and Darla gasped. _What? What's the matter?_

_**He's a dead man. He has to be!** _

Could _he be? Vampire, perhaps?_

_**I...no. I mean, Holtz could be turned, he's not immune or anything but...either he'd walk straight into the sun from self-loathing or students would be debating to this day whether the vampire concentration camps counted as genocide.** _

"Thank you for the report, Lindsay. Check records for anything on him...contingency plans and such...and ask me before you do anything irreversible." Lilah picked up her purse and strolled out, trying to look casual. _So tell me about the history you plainly have with this Holtz. I imagine the angelic imagery is his interaction with the anima effect. He's one of us...which means we need leverage._

_**Er...not from his family. He doesn't have any. My bad.** _

_Do tell._

*****

"Should we be out...clubbing?" The Buffybot seemed confused by the whole concept, but she was confused by most things. Harmony never felt quite so stupid when she was around. "Lilah's going to be president soon."

"Of course! Parties remind us of the good stuff we're fighting for!" Harmony picked up a shot glass and tossed it back. "All this will go away if the bad guys win. The more you think about it, the harder you wanna fight!" She picked up a second glass. "Can you dr--I mean, can you get drunk?"

"Why would you damage your central processor like that?" Buffybot frowned in confusion. "Is it fun? I can't get drunk. I can break down but not on purpose."

When she put it that way...but Harm's tolerance, like most vampires', was pretty high. She wouldn't get really irrational unless she had a couple of dozen drinks in her. So...reminding herself what she was fighting for outweighed a minor buzz. "Um...well...you're a sexbot, right?"

Buffybot nodded enthusiastically. "I was created to service Spike. Then he went away and Warren made me service him instead. Now I don't have anyone to service and it makes me lonely. Do you need servicing?"

"Um. Thanks but you need to work on, uh, your game." Spike had...? They were broken up. Harmony was her own woman now. She wouldn't get all crazy and jealous. _Beat her into scrap,_ Hungry snarled. The rest of her sighed.

"I know lots of games," Buffybot bubbled. "Which ones do I have to get better at to service you?"

"Uhhhh...Look, it's not that kind of game, okay? I don't like sex with girls, that's all." She didn't have any hangups about lesbians; she just...wasn't one. It'd been a little disappointing, honestly, discovering that vampires didn't really want to have sex with everything that moved. Harmony had been anticipating suddenly wanting women too, but so much for that.

"You don't want me to have sex with you?" Buffybot hung her head. "I need a new boyfriend. Do you think I should talk to Riley?"

"I think we should dance," Harmony suggested. "Guys like watching girls dance. They'll come ask if they can join in and boom! Instant...boyfriend." Not meal, the way she'd nearly said.

"I'm programmed for dancing," Buffybot agreed. She seized Harmony's hand and practically dragged her onto the dance floor. Harm had to admit her programming was pretty good; the bot's dancing was better than hers. Rather quickly a small gathering of handsome guys appeared to watch them. Harm's only worry was that Buffybot might be dancing close enough to her that the pair of them might be mistaken for a lesbian couple, which would--

A loud crash echoed from near the entrance, followed by gunfire. Probably the safest thing to do was head for the fire exits. Unfortunately, Buffybot went all alerty and ran toward the commotion instead. Harm, ran after her, grumbling.

An older man had entered the club carrying a big Hollywood shotgun. He pumped it one-handed, Arnie-style, and blasted someone's head to smithereens. The victim dusted at once. "Vampire hunter," Harm whispered to Buffybot. "Let's--"

Buffybot grinned and stepped forward. She grabbed hold of another vampire in retro-grunge and twisted his head free of his body. "We're on your side!" she proclaimed, grinning like a madwoman.

"He could still be--" Harmony began, but the stranger raised both eyebrows at Buffybot, followed by his gun.

"What are you?" he asked. "Not dead, not alive...and yet not undead. A demon, like as not," the man concluded, and fired.

Heavy shot tore through Buffybot's skin and spanged off her metal frame. "Hey! I'm one of the good guys!"

"--psycho," Harm finished to no one in particular.

Buffybot charged up to the man and seized his gun in both hands. She should've been able to rip it free in moments, but the strange hunter cursed under his breath, struck her in the face with the butt of the weapon, and finally managed to free it as she stumbled backwards.

Harm slipped up behind him while the two were fighting, prepared to sink her fangs into his neck, but the hunter somehow got a stake free of his belt in his left hand and drove it upwards into her stomach, narrowly missing her heart. For once Survivor and Hungry agreed; rather than wrench loose to escape the pain she seized his arm and bit his neck anyway. The man shouted incoherently and slammed an elbow into the stake, which hurt enough that she lost her grip and tumbled backwards.

Buffybot finally seemed convinced the man was a real danger; she wrenched a barstool out of the floor and attempted to hit him in the face with it. He blocked it with his shotgun, but the barrels visibly bent, rendering it useless. "Vile thing," he growled under his breath. "Who forged you?"

Buffybot didn't bother answering; she just brought the stool around again. The hunter caught it with one hand, but the effort seemed to wind him. Harmony spun on the ground, sweeping a kick at his legs, and forced him to leap over just as Buffybot drove a fist into what she'd expected to be his gut. The man doubled over, groaning in pain.

He got up anyway, and Harmony was just starting to worry when half a dozen men in uniform also burst through the doors. "Daniel Holtz?" one of them asked. "We've been looking for you. We have information we expect is in your interest to know."

Holtz stood there like a monster at bay, breathing heavily while the remaining five uniforms tased yet another vampire and forced some sort of collar around its neck. "The locations of Angelus and Darla?" he wheezed, as if nothing else in the world could interest him.

"Yes," Security Man said without hesitation. "We have that information too."

"Too?" Holtz snorted. "Tell me that, and perhaps we'll see whether you know anything else worth my time." From his tone, nothing could be.

"Only my employer has the information," Security said, "but there are no strings attached. We're on your side. Please, come with us. We'll deal with these two ourselves."

Holtz sneered at Harmony and Buffybot, but then seemed to put them out of his mind. "Show me," he said, and followed the man out, eyeing the captive vampire.

With Holtz gone, the security team began to follow, one of them smirking at Harmony as he passed. "You're free to go," he said very softly. "No hard feelings."

Harmony stood painfully and began brushing herself off. "What was that about?" The Buffybot shrugged. Slowly, feeling like a clock with sand in its gears, Harmony began turning the situation over in her head. She could figure it out. She needed to do it for herself.

*****

"She was recruiting Holtz," Harmony told Kate and Sam. "Nothing else makes sense. He had powers. Maybe like a Slayer."

"But Slayers are girls," Sam protested.

"Only _like_ a Slayer," Harmony said slowly. "Your powers are something new. Maybe Holtz's are too, something guys can have. I'm not sure. But I know Lilah doesn't want us. She needs enemies."

"What? Why?" Kate scowled at Harmony, and she flinched.

"She needs a bad guy," Harmony explained. "I thought about it all the way back. We're not enough to hurt her, so she's using us somehow to recruit. It's not a very smart plan."

"Sounds clever enough to me," Sam argued. "Our COs have done that before."

"Yeah," Harmony continued. "So did I, in high school. I don't know what else she's planning, but the basic idea is something I did to get hot boys to hit on me. So it can't be too smart."

Kate looked at Sam. "We have _got_ to think further ahead. Harm's seeing through the evil genius who's outplanning us."

Harmony bit her lip. Something was wrong with that, too. But what?

*****

"Anything you want, Mr. Mears. Cyberdyne Research--yes, the name's an in-joke--finds your designs fascinating. We'll pay you whatever your black little heart desires. All right. Think it over." Lilah hung up and turned her attention to Holtz.

_**He can't see me. You can kick his ass. He can't see me. You can kick his ass. He can't--** _

"Where are Darla and Angelus?" Holtz cut at once to what he thought mattered. It didn't really. Not even to him. He just didn't know it yet.

"This way," Lilah said simply. She led him down stairwell after stairwell, past the ground floor and into the ritual basement levels, watching him fume.

Finally-- "Speak, woman! Where--?"

She turned and opened the door to a very dusty room containing only symbols painted on the floor and a huge crate. "Here. Have we got her dressed?" she called out.

"All done," came the response.

"Then let's open up," Lilah said. A single small door lifted. Holtz, moving cautiously, bent to peer into the darkness, where a small figure waited for him.

"What is this?" Holtz straightened suddenly. "What black art--?"

"Papa?"


	5. Unwinnable

Once upon a time/  
there was some girl who was born into war/  
she killed her friends, and brought the hammer down (she saved the world)/  
she lived forever and a day and got everything she ever dreamed/  
she ruled a world/  
once upon a time.

Hours and seasons rushed over Anya as she whirled through the streets of Yu-Shan, while the Maidens and the Sun and Luna all jockeyed for position. Did they even notice the oddity? Rumor had it that Ignis Divine had risen when Willow Exalted and shouted for Autochthon to come fix the Games, but when the sun-disc had returned to normal he'd taken his popcorn, so to speak, and gone back to screwing around.

Once upon a time/  
there was some guy who loved a girl/  
assassins killed her, and he lost his mind/  
he slew the bad guys, sank their city/  
made himself a tyrant over all he could survey/  
he was the good guy/  
once upon a time/

Through it all Ayesha Ura just smiled as if Anya were making polite conversation. Didn't she notice anything unusual? Or maybe sometimes in epic adventures the people of this world just randomly burst into song.

You live your life/  
happily ever after/  
You live the dream/  
fairy tales and laughter/  
You live the storybooks/  
and one day you start askin'/  
How do you live/

Once upon a time/  
there was a girl who cursed her lover/  
the demons came and carried her away (she liked it fine)/  
she outlived everyone she knew/  
she lost her powers, fell in love, fell out of her dimension/  
she killed an empire, ruled the world/  
she got new powers, lost her world/  
how do you go on when your time is gone? (that's what I'm askin')  
how do you live after your/  
once upon a time?/  
wish we could meet and I could ask her/  
how do you live your whole life after/  
once upon a time?

"She wasn't...how do you put it?...all that and a bag of chips," Ayesha said. "The Empress was a complicated woman. Not evil, at least not always, but...she had a thing for power. And she got it in abundance, and perhaps not for the best. You two would have gotten along, but I don't know if she could've helped you much."

"We'd have gotten along?" Anya wondered if the Empress was actually dead or in hiding somewhere, but she doubted they'd get to meet.

"Like a house on fire," Ayesha said. "I don't say that lightly. She didn't have very many contemporaries, and she'd known us all a good long while, as enemies if not as friends. I think we were all...a little bored with each other, honestly. You're fresh blood, and at the same time old enough to have been around the block a few times. Think how rare that is."

"I guess it must be." Anya considered her own friends. Aside from the Scoobies, virtually all were immortal demons. She was closest to Halfrek, she thought. They weren't the same age, but there was a...perspective shift involved.

"Do you know why Chejop empowered you the way he did? I mean the specifics; we all know he wanted to spend more time teaching you."

Anya had thought that one over a thousand times. "It filled in some gaps in my abilities. I can heal myself. I can kill with a touch, and, y'know...Ending. But on the bigger scale....Ayesha, the Empire's not going to fall tomorrow. It _shouldn't_ fall tomorrow. People depend on it. On the Immaculate faith, too. Maybe they have to end, but the faster they go the worse it'll be for everyone."

"So he tied you to the Order." Ayesha scowled. "He gave you the responsibility of teaching Immaculates the Dragons' arts."

"Yup. To me, a Solar's fiancee. And you shouldn't forget, Ayesha: the Dragons really are holy. The Order is a problem, but it's not a monster. It teaches good stuff with just a little bad mixed in." Anya hesitated for a comparison. "Like a gift with purchase."

Ayesha chuckled a bit at that. "Everything's economics to you, isn't it?"

Anya grinned. "Everything's money. Economics is just window-dressing."

*****

Left right left/  
march all day/  
march all night/  
go this way/  
we don't get tired/  
we do get paid/  
never thought/  
it'd be this way.

"Pit trap!" shouted the soldier in front. Very few had died in the Anathema's dishonorable traps, but they delayed marching and broke up the battle lines. The closer they came to Gem, the more traps they encountered. Deadfalls. Ambushes. Hostile beasts along the trail. In one spot the roads had been shifted to lead into a dangerous Fire-aspected demesne. In several others, bargains had been struck with disgruntled gods or elementals. Buffy--or, Mnemon said, more likely her advisors--seemed to have turned the entire desert against them.

"Ants crawling out of the pit," someone reported. "They don't look like natural animals."

"Wyld-touched?" The commander was taking no chances.

"Er...maybe? Too big, and they have metallic shells."

"Shit," the commander groaned. "Detour as far as possible. Anyone who gets bit goes back to the rear lines." Damn mercury ants. Whose idea had these things been anyway?

"Sir," an advance scout reported hastily, "the enemy seems to have abandoned some sort of devices ahead."

"Hands off them," the commander warned. This was all covered in _The Thousand Correct Actions_. "Leave that shit to the Dragon-Blooded."

It took another ten minutes before the screaming started.

*****

"I'm not saying that won't help, Will. I'm saying we have artillery."

"B-but...nifty lighting bolts!" Willow groaned. Sure, she needed to start building cool stuff or learning necromancy, but that wasn't going to help in this fight. It was too late for that.

"If you're determined to help, figure out how to change me back! I can't inspire the troops looking like this." A week had passed, and Buffy was still a muppet. Willow had some ideas on fixing it, but only ideas.

"Can't you?" Weeping Raiton sneered. "Pathetic. You half-use the powers of the Yozis, who themselves are but a pale reflect--"

"Shut. Up." Buffy snapped. Emerald fire flared in her eyes, and Raiton did, with a casual shrug. "I've spent five years of my life kicking undead ass. Don't make me go all stakey on your undead gods, because I swear I will end them too."

"Be my guest," Raiton said, still sneering. "Shutting up now."

"Shaia? You got anything special?" Buffy opened her palms to the Sidereal.

"I know a good bit of the Sidereal martial art called the Quicksilver Hand of Dreams," Shaia said. "It's powerful, yet might have been better used one-on-one."

"Do what you can. Raiton? Planning to join in the carnage?"

"Will you fight by the side of a hekatonchiere?" Raiton gave an enigmatic half-smile. "I will happily summon one for you."

"Will it destroy the city?" Buffy was, thankfully, still in it for the right reasons. Mostly.

"I can guarantee only that she will fight. She was power in the ecstacy of death. She lived seven lives at once. She was god to the gods. I know her true name. I know she can annihilate such as Mnemon with a gesture."

"Will. She. Destroy. The city?" Buffy slammed her hands down on the table in front of Raiton. The metallic green glow was building around her.

"Illyria will do as I direct."

"She had better. Get summoning. And if she kills so much as one citizen of Gem, I go medieval on your ass."

"Do you think that you can defeat me, you insignificant mite?" Raiton rose from the table, rearing up well over six feet high.

"Been there. Done that. Got the 'I stopped the Old Ones and all I got was this lousy t-shirt' t-shirt." Buffy took hold of Raiton's mask by the nose and pulled it an inch away from her face before releasing it to snap back. "Help or get out, Toucan Sam."

"We will meet in battle," Raiton said without inflection. "We will fight, and I will cast you into the Maw of Oblivion as a sacrifice." She turned and strolled from the room.

"Are you just going to let her go?" Tara asked. "She could...."

"She could do a lot of things," Buffy acknowledged. "I don't think she will. She just wants to max out the casualties."

"Should you trust her, then? This...Illyria sounds like b-bad news." Tara fumbled for Willow's hand.

Shaia jumped in before Buffy could say anything reassuring. "Any hekatonchiere is bad news. Some are the Neverborn's nightmares. Some are the ghosts of Primordial behemoths. The most powerful are the dead souls of the Primordials themselves."

"You know anything about this 'Illyria'?" Buffy fiddled with her hair, still looking pale and sickly in her own light.

"Only that it's unlikely to be her actual name," Shaia admitted. "There's not much time, but I can try to get some information for you. That phrase 'power in the ecstasy of death' sounds familiar, and if she truly lived seven lives at once that could make her a dead third-circle. Possibly. I'd wonder what became of her eighth soul, but...Primordial War."

Buffy glanced at Willow. Willow smiled at Tara. Tara turned to Shaia and said, "Soon you'll be talking just like us."

*****

"Lost a company to the west." Hadamar bowed deeply to his liege, who shook her head irritably. "Fanglords examined and distributed the protective equipment left behind,but it was subtly defective."

Mnemon gritted her teeth. "She's trying to make us switch back and forth between following the axioms and violating them. Trying to confuse us."

The tent was spare, lacking all trace of luxury. Mnemon would feast, and have her pick of the soldiers who caught her eye, but she left no obvious sign in her quarters. She paced up and down the short length of it, only the regulation five feet longer than an ordinary soldier's. "The enemy wants to destroy our discipline. All commanders who violate the rules must be penalized equally whether they succeed or fail. Creativity is no excuse if it falls into the greater trap." There was a moment of hesitation. "If someone does succeed while keeping either the letter or the spirit of regulations, reward them appropriately."

"The Anathema is wily," Hadamar admitted.

"I knew that as soon as I saw her preparing for a siege," Mnemon scoffed. "A child would not try to hold Gem this way. She has some deeper plan. That much is obvious."

"If I may ask...?" Mnemon nodded. "My lady, is she following the direct orders of the Yozis? I have heard regarding their intellect--"

Mnemon leaned forward with a snarl. "The Yozis are broken things. They are clever, undoubtedly, but they cannot outmaneuver the Princes of the Earth. But to answer your question, no, I believe we are dealing with a spoiled brat of an Anathema who thinks herself wiser than she is. She has enmeshed herself in a web of doublethink. I guarantee you, she has already lost."

*****

"Five hours on the summoning," DoppelBuffy reported. "There's a company or two heading in with a battering ram, but they're going straight for the rockfall."

"Good so far," Buffy acknowledged. "Have we got the square clear?"

"It's clear," Tara reported. "I don't understand--"

"You'll see. Shaia, any messages?"

The Sidereal jumped. "Messages? Why would I have any messages?" DoppelBuffy still wasn't sure how her twin had managed to recruit a Sidereal Exalt to the cause, but something odd was going on there, if only she could work out what.

The company with the ram sang as they marched toward the gateway. DoppelBuffy couldn't make out the words, but she heard the music fall into chaos as they blundered into the rockfall trap.

A filmy-winged thing fluttered its way into the throne room and landed on Shaia's shoulder. "Sulumor says she's in position to open a pit in the courtyard on your signal. She seems a bit puzzled you've waited this long."

"Let her be. My strategy's none of her business." Well, Buffy didn't seem confused that Shaia knew Sulumor. Maybe she'd introduced them? No, that didn't seem right.

"Willow, that new trick you've got. Wanna use it to help me out?"

Willow could only frown in confusion. "I don't see what use that is in a fight. Sure, it'd help Spike and Angel but--"

"Look out the window, Will. See that big sandy duney area behind Mnemon's lines? Spike's already there. Think you can teleport yourself and Angel over there?"

"That's a long way, Buffy--"

"You're a big girl, Willow. You don't need me to hold your hand anymore. Can you make it?"

Willow stared out the window. "Are you sure you just want me to take Angel? If I'm going to ferry people out there I may as well take a company of soldiers."

"No! Just you and Angel. I promise there's a reason."

Willow threw up her hands. "Okay. It'll take a few minutes."

Buffy hopped up onto DoppelBuffy's lap as she sat in the throne. "No rush."

*****

"I'd leave those alone if I were you." Iron Siaka grumbled. "For one thing, you're on the Western Convention now. Leave the South to its own Convention. For another, those guys are bad news."

Anya scratched behind her ear. "So the entire Five-Score Fellowship just collectively decided not to try making peace between them and anyone else at all?"

Iron Siaka slammed her fist into the wall, shaking it. "Can you never just leave well enough alone?" She'd given the hearthstone back to Nazri and was looking for the least troublesome way to break the bond between her and Anya, sacred to Venus or not.

"If I could, I'd be Bronze Faction, and the world would keep muddling down towards catastrophe. Because that's what we were Exalted for, right?"

"Fine!" Siaka spat. "You want to screw with the fate of the Dune People? Go ahead. Good luck making peace with cannibals who have to hide from the Sun's light, Gold Star."

"Um." Anya thought about that for a moment and then, infuriatingly, burst into laughter.

Siaka slammed the door and walked away.

*****

Willow and Angel materialized in a swirl of impenetrable darkness. To her eyes--and probably Angel's--the black pall was an unending blizzard of symbols to join the perpetual sandstorm that raged around her and never quite went away. A couple of days ago, the sun would have pierced it, but now it was a pool of unbroken shadow almost two hundred feet across.

She swayed, trying to regain her bearings, and Spike burst from the sand in vamp face, wearing nothing but a loincloth. Laughing, he yelled out, "Feeding time!"

All around him the dunes burst open like an explosion in a flour mill. Only without the fire, of course. Then they were immersed in a sea of fishbelly flesh and pink eyes.

"Don't touch the witch or we all burn!" Angel shouted. "She's our cover!" It must have killed him to be doing this, but Willow saw only grim determination in his expression. "They're human," he murmured as he took her hand and began pulling her forward. "They have a chance at redemption." Since when did he not?

Screams rose from the rearguard of the Realm forces as Dune People tore into them from behind. Bodies began to fall...most of them Dune Folk, but here and there soldiers were being pulled down. Part of Willow coldly assessed the distraction; the rest of her wondered if Buffy realized how many people were dying to help her win.

Bodies fell. Willow sighed. Bodies rose again.

*****

"Pull back from the city," Mnemon ordered reluctantly. She enjoyed battle, but she enjoyed winning more. There were no telling how many other ambushes and traps the Despot had ready to spring on her. "They want to fight. I say we hold the line and let them starve."

"Should we look for other Dune Folk encampments?" asked Mnemon Czaguna. "We could keep tripping over them for days."

Mnemon thought that over. Perhaps it would only waste time. But if there were many more of them out there, waiting for the cover of night to attack.... "Yes, send out scouting parties behind our lines. Make sure each has an Earth aspect." Better to be prudent.

"Pressing the battle in the Dragons' name/  
Till victory is ours/  
Raising the banners of Earth and Flame/  
We prosecute our wars/  
Showing Forsaken they fight in vain/  
Onward my soldiers, ensure my reign/  
Left, right, left, right/  
Till victory is mine!"

*****

"Now I'm here to play/  
And I've come in style/  
It's a lovely day/  
Makes me wanna smi-i-ile/

I come from the imagination/  
And I'm here strictly by your invocation/  
So what do you say/  
Come and dance a while!"

Smiling, Buffy hopped down from her double's lap and sashayed up to the blue-suited demon, her eyes gazing upward into his as she took his hand.

"I called you here to marry me/  
I know that's always been your thing/  
The smoke will rise/  
To blind Terrestrial eyes/  
The sparks we strike don't even sting!"

Beaming, if a bit uncertain about his diminutive date, Sweet spun Buffy around and tossed her into the air.  
"Yeah I know what you feel girl/  
I know just what you feel girl!"

"The fires of hell, they burn for me/  
And I walk through the wall of flame/  
The furnace glows/   
The grisly reaper mows/  
But I can beat him at his game."

Buffy and the demon paced each other, back and forth in front of the throne where DoppelBuffy still slumped. Tara, oddly, seemed to be providing her only backup. By contrast, Sweet had evidently been joined by five mannequin demons, seemingly made of ordinary wood.

"You brought me down and doomed this town/  
So when we blow this scene--/"

"I sear my name in history/  
The Slayer who betrayed the cause!"

"Back we will go to my kingdom below/  
And you will be my queen!"

"I'll say 'I do,'/  
And when the fight is through/  
We'll go and consummate the clause!"

Sweet burst into laughter and swung Buffy through the air. She went up a puppet; when her feet touched the floor she was flesh again. Her heart beat; her lungs pumped air. She'd definitely made worse calls than this.

*****

Sulumor raised her hands over the courtyard as the signal arrived. Buffy Summers puzzled her. She claimed to see the Dune People as equal to other humans, yet was willing to toss away their lives in a futile distraction. True, Sulumor had made no objection; she herself was greater than her people. It was merely confusing.

Her powers continued growing, though not as fast as Buffy's, and she was not here solely to bring the forces at her command. Sulumor passed her hands over the courtyard, and the ground crumbled away, opening into a great pit. Skittering, screeching, iridescent locusts boiled up from the depths.

She cared nothing for the city. But her masters and Buffy's demanded its survival, so it would not starve.

*****

Willow's lightning curled around, striking down Dragon-Blooded and mortals alike, draining their essence only to fuel more lightning. She was too low on energy to teleport back to the palace, though, and wasn't gaining much from the exchange.

Willow seized a man with a chilly,windy aura by the throat. It stung, but wasn't powerful enough yet to really hurt her. "We can do this the easy way," she said, "or I can eat you alive." She ought to be able to drain off his excess magcal energies; she had almost been able to do that as a mortal.

She bared her fangs and leaned in, her right hand drawn back, lightning crackling around it. The Dragon-Blood shuddered, and she felt energy being siphoned from him to her. That was better.

She could let him live. Maybe she should let him live. But this was war.

Her fangs sank into his neck.

*****

Here she came.

Suddenly Gem could survive a siege. Mnemon knew it. Mnemon was coming with her siege towers and her Dragon-Blooded and her ancient high-tech weapons.

Buffy strolled out onto the balcony, trailed by Tara, Shaia, and Sweet. "I'm going to have to fight her," she mused. "I'm going to have to kick her ass until she stops getting up."

"Can you even do that?" Tara asked. Full of concern as always. She was gonna get premature wrinkles. "She's a Terrestrial, sure, but she's old and powerful and she's got an army with her."

"Her army's going to be busy," Buffy explained. Sure enough, lances of green fire and washes of dark energy were bursting forth from the mountain walls of her city, alongside arrows and catapulted stones. The helltech wouldn't last long, but it wouldn't need to. Also..."ETA on Illyria?"

"Half an hour," Shaia reported. "Are you really planning to let Raiton summon that...monstrosity? The best scholarship I can locate says Illyria was a dead fetich soul. She could probably wipe out both armies with a flick of her...tentacles or fingers or whatever she has."

"I'm going to do what I have to do," Buffy responded. With that, she vaulted the retaining wall and began to run down the palace wall.

She had an appointment to keep.

*****

The Anathema was coming.

Mnemon knew very well that much of the Immaculate dogma was a sham. If she had it to design all over again herself, perhaps she would use Anathema as pawns rather than kill them. But she didn't. And by all accounts, Buffy Summers truly was a tool of the Yozis. She had no qualms whatsoever about facing the girl, neither moral nor practical.

Buffy came closer, anima shimmering and bursting into sickly green-gold light that shimmered off the brass armor of her second skin. Even Mnemon's insides quivered at the sight. With each step Buffy grew larger, and larger still, until she towered over Mnemon like some Primordial behemoth, her loose robe shredding. Mnemon allowed her lip to curl into a sneer as the ground trembled. Here at last came Gem's army behind the Anathema, large, yes,but a ragged band against the Realm's legions.

"My la-a-a...." The warning warbled to a halt as a huge tentacled creature materialized on the battlefield off to Mnemon's left, though still roughly in the direction of the city. The legions began to turn, painfully slow as if caught in a nightmare, and as they did so the monster scythed them down. It was not as large as some creatures she had fought, but it was as large as the Despot and surely more powerful.

Mnemon began to turn toward the greater threat, but a brass foot slammed into her, and she was forced to brace herself against horrific impact. She held position as the Anathema stared. So this was how it was to be.

Well, if the Anathema wanted a duel, Mnemon would give her one to remember the rest of her life. "Die," she grated, and raised her daiklaive.

*****

Buffy's foot should have sent Mnemon flying, but the woman who would be Empress braced herself as a brass appendage as big as her chest crashed into her and held position, though her feet sank a few inches into the baked desert earth. If Buffy was brass, Mnemon was hardly distinguishable from marble. She spun her giant sword about like a twirled toothpick and tried to drive it in, sparking from Buffy's heel. Not for the first time, Buffy wished she could layer another set of armor over this one, but armor grated painfully on her brazen skin.

Mnemon was a Terrestrial, but she was older than Angel, far more experienced than Buffy, and supported by her personal bodyguard even with the distraction of Illyria drawing the rest of the army's attention. Buffy had no real options here. She sank deep into the core of herself and searched for more power.

What flooded her was hate. Hate for Mnemon. Contempt for the woman's ambition, disgust for her callous disregard of her subjects, fury at her opposition not just to Buffy but to heroes in general. Mnemon wanted to rule the Realm? Buffy would stop her, break her, humiliate her before her legions. She was in every way greater than this little upstart.

Buffy seized a great lance-ish thing from the back of a troop transport, wrenching it from its moorings, and found the trigger as she drove it into Mnemon's gut. Mnemon held her position, ever so precisely, as she fell over prone, breastplate unmarred but smoking.

*****

Mnemon climbed to her feet. Her belly felt covered in bruises, but no real harm had been done her. She would have to be more careful; she had underestimated this Anathema's ingenuity, and for all Mnemon's power there were strengths she could not match.

Buffy brought down a weapon she wielded like a twig in one hand, a daikalbar of corrupted jade, surprisingly simple and elegant in its design. The axeblade forced Mnemon to dance nimbly aside, evading it with all her skill. Though the disproportion of her size made Buffy's motions look as awkward as a boy poking an anthill with a stick, her precision was impeccable. Mnemon's bodyguard emerged from the behemoth's slowing effect just in time to engage Buffy's mercenaries, whose numbers made up for their lesser skill and power, at least for the moment. Superior teamwwork could not save Mnemon this time.

Streamers of energy coiled around Weeping Sword of Sorrow, and Mnemon lunged forward. The Five-Dragon Wrath technique...skittered off Buffy's armored skin in a shower of sparks, wasted. Mnemon cursed out loud, a pair of nonsense syllables she'd heard from a Sidereal advisor, earning only the Anathema's startled laughter.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you? He's supposed to be one of the good guys." Buffy's massive fist pierced Mnemon's crystalline anima and slapped her to the ground, but did her no real harm. "As in, not on your side."

"I care nothing for your mythology, Anathema." It had to be that. Or perhaps some other Anathema obscure enough that Mnemon hadn't heard of him. A suitable curse. "And none of you are 'good guys'. The very best of you are still rebels against the Realm and good order. You, Despot, are far from the best--though you did, at least, give me the excuse I needed to annex Gem at last."

Buffy bared her teeth and lashed out. Mnemon batted the daikalbar aside, if barely. There was more than one way to win a fight.

*****

"I guess if someone were going to take Gem from me, you at least look the part, Miss Marble." Mnemon infuriated her, and it wasn't just the trouble Buffy was having with quipping at someone totally outside her culture. The hatred that was fueling her also filled her with irrational rage.

Mnemon only laughed at her. Smug bitch! She was going to wipe that smile off the woman's face. "Gem has always been part of the Realm. My mother merely never saw fit to enforce her claim. I, on the other hand, take what I want. Which makes you the perfect excuse."

Buffy dodged the quick flurry of blows that came at her, and swung the Scythe in an attempt to catch Mnemon across the throat. "Want, take, have? I've heard..." The red rage behind her eyes flickered, shimmered... "...that line..." ...transformed. "...before." Damn it, she was far too large to give that woman the response she deserved. Buffy's legs quivered. The Scythe...was it small enough? Sure, it'd be rough, but Mnemon was Exalted. She could take it.

Panting heavily, Buffy let the new power go. The hate vanished at once and took the horrific darkness and brutality with it, but she still wanted Mnemon as desperately as she had wanted to beat the Terrestrial down before the fight began. "You...you don't realize what I nearly...."

"Oh, I realize," Mnemon sneered. "I knew you well enough to know you wouldn't do it." White and red currents of energy swirled around her fist, and Buffy took a massive blow full in the chest. "You're soft, Summers. You haven't got the will to do what it takes. You'll fight, you'll accept darkness from your allies, but you're a hero in your own mind. You judge yourself by a standard none of us are meant to live by." A rain of blows forced Buffy to hurl herself aside. "Whereas I...I do whatever I must."

And she ducked beneath a supply wagon.

Buffy heaved the conveyance over, but Mnemon was already darting from one vehicle to the next, both exploiting their cover and heading deeper into Illyria's rippling time distortion.

"You can't hide from--"

"Hide?" Mnemon laughed. White energy swirled up her legs and through her aura, sucked up from the ground itself. "Momentarily, I suppose." She clenched her left hand into a fist. "One hour, Despot Buffy. Your city has one hour to live. Enjoy your reign."

She turned and ran directly toward Illyria, time bending in her wake.


	6. Itty Bitty Living Space

"So the question becomes: do you remember me? Because I remember you."

Kate squeezed off two rounds and ducked behind the table. She wasn't the Slayer. She wasn't pyrokinetic like Sam and she wasn't...whatever Shoat was. She was an ex-cop trying to keep her neighborhood safe. Unfortunately, sometimes that meant she was in over her head.

She'd never seen this stringy-haired Chinese girl before in her life, yet the woman had addressed her by name. Kate Lockley didn't believe in coincidence, but who--?

A pair of muscular arms seized her around the waist from behind. "You killed me," the Chinese girl hissed, "but not well enough. I went to hell. Now I'm back."

Who had she killed? A human? A demon? The Chinese girl strolled up, and a form like a giant worm or snake spilled out of her mouth and vanished over her shoulder. Definitely a demon now, whatever it had been before. "My name was Talamour. Not that you ever asked. I only needed a body. Just one, just to start with. You'll be number ten, now." Kate fought to wrench free. "There was a time I'd have had to hang you for three days. Everything changes, though." 

"Not good and evil," Kate growled. "Because you're definitely still the latter." If she could just reach her gun--

A third body, a preteen white boy, came around the corner, laughing. "Especially good and evil, detective. Especially that."

Kate drove both elbows into the demon's gut, and the creature groaned in pain. It wasn't invulnerable, and hurting its host could hurt it, or at least slow it down. Talamour's grip weakened, and Kate managed to wrench free, bring up her revolver, and fire point-blank into the Chinese woman's face. From the way they sagged when the creature leapt bodies, the hosts were already dead.

The being shrieked. She'd...she'd heard that tone before. A man on fire and still alive. The case she'd met Angel on.... "You," she said, and fired again.

The bullet struck the kid in the shoulder. "You do remember me," it said. And something struck her in the back like a bullet piercing her chest. It hurtled into the boy's open mouth. "Not for long."

The pain was blinding. Kate struggled to keep her feet. "Screw you," she spat. "Nine people is enough. I sent you to hell once and I can do it again."

The boy wiped bloody spittle from his shirt. "I count two rounds and eight bodies, and you're already mortally wounded. You're well past bad odds and into impossible."

"Funny," Kate said weakly. "If I'd known what you were when we met, 'impossible' is what I'd have called you." She'd seen so much impossibility in the last two years she might as well be living in Wonderland. Okay, she hadn't perpetrated much of it.

Kate lifted her gun, only to have it kicked from her grasp by the heavyset man behind her. Now that was just not fair. How was she even low enough for that?

Kate found herself fumbling in--no, for--her pocket, where she kept her little-used rosary. She knew now that there was something beyond not just the mundane, but beyond the "ordinary supernatural"--had since Angel had burst in and saved her life. If she could pray...but all her bloodstarved brain could produce was fragments from the bad translation of Saint Patrick's Breastplate in...in that kid's novel.

... _all these I place/_  
by God's almighty help and grace/  
between myself and the powers of darkness...

The question was, did she want to live through this?

Of course she did. How was that a question?

Stop the demon? Save her community?

Yes, damn it. Of course. The boy bent over her. "Think we spoiled the body. Shame. She was perfect."

She opened her mouth as if to answer the persistent questioner, opened it wider than she had thought was possible. Saw fear in the demon's blank eyes just before her teeth sank into its stolen face.

*****

"You're a demon."

The green man just rolled his red eyes, tilted his head, and said, "All my life, Madrigal. And you've been a small gnawing rodent most of yours."

Amy stepped back nervously. "Faith? This guy knows--"

"Only what I hear in the universal cantata," the green man said patiently. "And right now we've got a new theme ready to overwhelm the melody. Don't get me wrong, it might be a sweeter tune than what's been playing--we can hope, at least, because the old music was emo as all hell, if you get my drift--but it's also way, way louder than these ears can handle."

"Nice extended metaphors," said a short man with short red hair, coming up behind the demon, who shrugged.

"I try." He turned back to Amy. "Most of the time I just go by 'the Host', but away from my club, I suppose you can call me Lorne. Oz here came by to visit, mentioned some old friends, and we put our quarter notes together and came up with half the story. Think you can fill in the gaps?"

Amy started to turn and call for Faith again, but she stumbled. The green man caught her. "I swear I'm not here to cause you any problems," he insisted. "I don't need Lilah Morgan playing the sax on late night to know she's bad news, Adagio. We've come to help. Cross my heart and hope _not_ to die, not just yet."

Faith arrived just then--finally--and took Amy's other arm. "Okay, what's all this--Oz?"

"Faith," the short guy said. "Heard you were involved. Brought some hummus. Precautionary."

Faith blinked and looked confused. "Actually I love hummus."

Oz nodded. "Then let's talk over lunch."

"Dude, sun went down hours ago."

"Jet lag coming from Tibet's a bitch."

Faith tugged Amy and Oz back inside while Lorne went back to the van. By the time he returned with an bald black man, a young woman in tight rubberized gloves who might've been part Japanese, and a curly haired girl--no, another demon--with a faint, unplaceable accent, Amy had remembered Oz. He'd been a drummer, oddly quiet. Willow's boyfriend. He took her rapid aging completely in stride, saying only, "Bummer."

"Faith thinks we can still fix it," she found herself saying. "I don't really know myself."

"Don't quit hoping. Werewolf here." He pointed to the girl in rubber. "Can't touch anyone."

"Gwen Raiden. Electrical powers, not all the comic books promised."

"Orphan."

"Robin Wood, only known child of a Slayer." He spread his hands. "No luck with the superpowers myself."

"And...um, Halfrek...what's your drawback again?"

"Itty bitty chance of privacy. No, seriously, D'Hoffryn's just short of all-knowing where his girls are concerned. I have to assume he doesn't mind that I'm here or you'd be in trouble by now."

"What about you, Green?" Faith spoke up. "You got problems too?"

"Just terminally fabulous," Lorne said, tugging at his fluorescent jacket. "Well...and a little conspicuous at times."

"Something big is going down," Robin said. "And if it's not something to do with a certain employee of Wolfram and Hart becoming president, I'll eat mom's old duster. Have to find it first; a vamp got it."

"Between me and Lorne," Halfrek said, "we traced the only real nexus of resistance here, to a Kate Lockley's place."

"She's out for the night," Amy said. "Tracking down a serial killer."

"Leaving a rogue Slayer, a vampire, a robot, and Amy to guard the store?" Oz nodded to himself. "Sounds like the forces of good to me."

"Also an underage necromancer," Shoat said, poking her head in. "Don't mind me." She vanished back into her room.

"That kid have parents?" Gwen asked.

"Not to be contacted," Kate said, coming in by the back way. "She insists it wouldn't be healthy for them. I'm inclined to agree or CPS would have her by now. What's with the crowd?"

"Forces of good are coming together," Faith said. "Not a good sign."

"Means the situation is dire," Oz agreed. "Is the military really involved or did I mishear?"

"Riley and Sam are out just now," Kate said. "In other news I was nearly killed by a burrower demon. Luckily I'm a werebear."

Oz looked up casually. "New?"

"As of tonight," Kate agreed. "I got about five of its host bodies, but that just means the other four are out hunting for more."

"Other four?" Faith scowled. "I thought--"

"Wrong, apparently. They can control ten bodies at once. Surprise, surprise, the ancient texts got it wrong." Kate began peeling off layers of clothing. "Nailed me so hard I thought I'd been shot. Exit wound was tiny though." Down to her bra now, she held up a bloody blouse. "Damn. Wish I knew who'd infected me. I'd send a thank-you note."

"So it's a decanthrope." Amy looked up to see Harmony coming down the spiral staircase to the private rooms. Holding a book? "No society to speak of cuz they won't be around each other. Can't blame the poor little icky things."

"She can read?" Amy murmured.

"Required skill for graduation," Oz said under his breath.

"Oh, actually they're irrationally afraid the others will steal their bodies," Harmony said. "Tend to be meg-a-lo-maniacal. Oh! Believe nobody else should have power, got it! They like attractive healthy human bodies. Duh? Like, who wouldn't?"

"It is kind of weird seeing her do the research," Faith admitted in Amy's ear. "She says she's gonna be useful if it kills her, though."

"This is in a book?" Kate said, going a bit red in the face. "One of my books?"

"It's okay," Buffybot said, following Harm. "There's like thirty-seven varieties of burrower demons. Decanthropes aren't even common any more. You'd have found it eventually if you'd looked long enough."

"So did I hear right that you're a werebear now?" Harmony sniffed at Kate's clothing. "You don't smell bear...ish."

"Jesus, I thought it'd be obvious," Kate muttered. "I've got worse back hair than some guys."

"Back hair?" Lorne said, looking puzzled. He got up to take a closer look. "Goldilocks, your back's smooth as a larval Mekoru demon."

"To put that in a less-disturbing way," Robin said, also coming closer, "I don't see any back hair either."

Kate made a face. "Look, if you can't see it you won't hear me complain. Who's with me on the next run? We have to take this thing out, and soon."

"I'm in," Gwen and Robin said simultaneously. Faith and Buffybot each raised a hand, followed by Oz.

"Hopefully it'll still only have four bodies," Kate said. "But it's angry and it wants more. Watch each other's backs out there."

"Harm?" Faith wondered. "You want to sit this one out?" That didn't seem like her. Or like most vampires, really.

"I'm working on something to do with these powers," Harmony said sheepishly. "If I can figure out where they're coming from, maybe we can get more of them."

"Then go to it," Faith said, raising her eyebrows in surprise. "Don't be afraid to ask Amy for help."

"I'm on the job," Harmony giggled, and went back upstairs.

"Weird," Oz said.

*****

"That's our second failed attempt with the Mears boy," Lilah muttered, turning the Prison over in her hands. "Why isn't it working?"

_**Considered that he might just not be the sort of material we need?**_ Darla suggested. **_He's smart enough, but he's not what most people would call a hero._**

"We don't need him to be a hero," Lilah argued. "We need him to be a villain."

Mara slapped her on the side of the head. "Only the Infernal Exaltations are drawn to moral failings," she reminded her charge, "and only forty-eight of those remain in the Prison. What emerged this time was a Lunar Exaltation, for which Warren would be a miserable host. You need better control over the process, unless you think you can somehow create a situation that will satisfy any possible criteria."

"She can do it," Drusilla tittered from beside her empty birdcage. "Miss Lilah is a brilliant star in the heavens."

_**Oh my,**_ Darla mused. **_I'd say she has entirely the wrong impression of you._**

"Quiet, you," Lilah snapped, not clear just how Darla meant that. "She's right. I'm being a fool. I'm smarter than any ordinary mortal, even Warren or Knox. I just tend to slip into certain modes--like politics--and forget the rest. If Knox can't figure out how to release a particular type of Exaltation, well...he's only human. I'm not."

Mara laughed. "Good show, Madame President."

"Come on now, Mara. I haven't even carried off the assassination yet."

*****

"Call me Hallie." The vengeance demon tapped at the third keyboard carelessly. "Got to get updated on these things again. They change so fast."

"You're sure you're here to help against Lilah?" Amy didn't trust that at all. "You're supposed to be one of the bad guys."

"So's Harm," Halfrek pointed out. "Anyway, you're absolutely right. I'm not here for Lilah. Though if she loses, I'll laugh in her face. I'm here for you. It's never too late to get revenge on the deserving."

"Mom's dead," Amy pointed out. "Or as good as. Korsheth took her away, body and soul. Good riddance. Also, I've read up on your kind. I don't trust your wishes."

"Generally a good policy," Halfrek acknowledged. "But I'm not just any vengeance demon, and you're not just any victim. You're one of the most powerful witches in this hemisphere. I'd guess you're second only to Willow Rosenberg, if you ask me, and she's a special case."

"Special case how?" Amy didn't have anything against Willow. God, she wished she was on her level, though.

"Well, I guess it won't hurt to let you into the loop. It's an open secret around the office. She's the boss's daughter."

"She what?" Everybody knew that old curmudgeon Ira Rosenberg. "But she's...."

"The product of a wish. You don't seriously think Ira would've married Sheila without a little prompting? The man's two sideburns short of being Hasidic. Then D'Hoffryn subbed in his own demonic essence and voila! One demon-blooded superwitch. Why do you think he's got such a soft spot--no, wait. You were a rat, you hadn't heard."

Amy sighed. "It doesn't matter. I could wish I were as powerful as Willow, but not only would you screw me over, even if you didn't, how long have I got to enjoy it?"

"You could wish you were immortal," Harmony said without looking up from her laptop.

"Valid," Halfrek agreed. "But she's right, Harmony. Anything she wishes for, I know how to twist it. I've been in this game a long time."

"So why would I ever make a wish with you around, Hallie?" No matter how desperately she wanted her life back, Halfrek was never going to give it to her.

"Same reason as always," the demon said. "Vengeance."

*****

The decanthrope's latest host body was packing heat. Kate suspected they all would be, and she hadn't been willing to trust too much to her new powers. She still had sufficient connections that she could get a bulletproof vest if she really needed one, and her clothes had all reappeared intact.

Robin scooted past, firing off a crossbow bolt. It missed, but Oz hurtled by a moment later, followed by the Buffybot. The burrower wasn't actually in this body, and it seemed more easily confused.

Gwen seized the being by the head, and there was a crackling, popping noise. She shoved it down. "One more brain fried. Two to go."

"If," Oz said. No more was necessary; they'd discussed the possiblity that it had taken more hosts already.

"If," Gwen agreed.

Kate acknowledged Faith's high five. There was something unspoken between them now. Maybe the way there was between Faith and Shoat.

With a roar another of the bodies came charging toward them, and it was Kate, not Faith, who lifted a hand and sent it flying. She was stronger now, even without changing shape. A good thing, too. She was afraid to change in front of her friends. She might...do something very bad.

Buffybot dispatched the creature with a knee to the back of its skull. Good for her. She'd done a little brain-frying herself earlier. Have to get someone to check her wiring and make sure it didn't happen again.

"Where's the--?" Robin was interrupted as a young woman in a business suit tried to wrench Kate's just-reloaded pistol from her hand. The demon bent Kate's wrist backward and pried at the fingers with all her might. Not one of them moved, and suddenly Kate realized that her fingers had fused into a cage of bone around the weapon. She could no more be disarmed than she could have her hand torn from her body. At least, it would take about the same amount of force.

Kate levered her gun into position against the demon's immense strength and squeezed the trigger. The back of its head blew out with a shocking burst of gore. She wanted to vomit, but there was no twisting in her guts, and all she heard herself say was, "Done. Let's check for the burrower body to be sure."

Was she really that cold inside?

Hell yeah.  
*****

"You could outlive your mother, outpower her. That's a valid revenge even if she never knows. And honestly I think Korsheth would get a kick out of showing her. She's not dead. It's not his style."

Amy was getting extremely tired of this conversation. "I swear, Halfrek, I'm not interested. I don't care what he does to my mother, I'm sure she deserves it, but I'm not going to put myself in that position or worse."

"Not even if I guaranteed no strings attached? I can do that, you know. You're a powerful witch of dubious mental stability. I can spin it that way to D'Hoffryn." Halfrek leaned forward as if she thought she was closing a deal. Yeah. Fat chance.

"You make me insane. That's not 'no strings attached'. That's--"

"How I spin it to the big guy. I won't do a thing to you. Honest. Pinky swear. Spit shake. However you want to play it. I power you up and give you your youth back. You do you. That's all. Be Amy Madison."

"You're serious."

"As a heart attack. A metaphorical heart attack. No worries."

"Hey," Harm said belatedly, "should I separate y--?"

"Okay. You're on. I wish for youth and power. Screw it up and so help me God I will make _you_ wish I knew what mercy was."

"Done."

"Hey, hold up," Harmony began, but really she should've said whatever she was going to say a lot sooner. A wind stirred in the room, just a breeze at first. But it touched Halfrek, and she began to dissolve into flecks of sand.

"Wait," Hallie said, "I didn't..." Her hand broke apart as she held it up, blowing away on the strengthening wind. "...mean anything like..." The particles swirled around in a tightening spiral and were sucked into the gemstone on her necklace. "...like this!"

Nothing else in the room was affected by the wind, not beyond a faint rippling, but to Amy it grew stronger still, rising to gale force, and abruptly she also began to dissolve in it. "You said no strings attached!" she raged, but by the look of things whatever was happening wasn't under Halfrek's control any longer. The demon flicked her remaining hand repeatedly as if trying to break a spell, but it made no difference. In moments all that remained of her was a cloud of sand swirling around her power center like a miniature tornado.

The last thing Amy heard before she, too, was torn completely apart was some extremely creative cursing from Harmony.

*****

"Damn it!" Very deliberately, Lilah stamped one foot.

Well. It was progress.

*****  
 **You served us in life. Serve us also now in death.**

Why did he hesitate? He had indeed served the Old Ones, body and soul. And if there was one whit of difference between living Old Ones and undead Old Ones, surely his allegiance should be to the latter. Was it not so?

Yet he held back. The Neverborn promised him no lasting kingdom to rule.

Prophecy had betrayed him. There would be no lasting kingdom in undeath anymore than in Oblivion. He spoke three words, the first and last additions for camouflage's sake; only his middle name was the one he had borne in life, as a hermit in Germany when Rome was freshly dead and he had guarded a splinter of the True Cross. "Joseph Heinrich Nest." The words fell into the mouth of the Void.

**Rise, Master of Yesterday and Tomorrow. Rise...Lord of Death.**


	7. Unbeatable

"Every single night the same arrangement/  
I go out and fight the fight/  
Still I always feel this strange estrangement--"

There were plenty of drawbacks to taking advantage of Illyria's time distortion. Confusion about the progress of the battle; uncertainty how the time shift was interacting with the elemental forces about to destroy Gem; the cries of dying soldiers as they froze for the butchering or aged to death in moments.

Mnemon thought the worst of them, though, was the inanity of Buffy Summers' singing.

"Nothing here is real, nothing here is right/  
I've been making shows/  
Of trading blows/  
Just hoping no one knows/  
That I've been going through the motions--"

Reluctantly, Mnemon acknowledged Buffy as a near-equal. The Anathema was a corrupted Solar, her essence not yet mature; Mnemon was one of a handful of Terrestrial paragons who might match her in raw power. Buffy was a seasoned warrior, by all accounts hardened by five years of near-constant battle; Mnemon was a general of the world's greatest army. As a general, Buffy was still raw, but she had been clever enough to make Mnemon face her in person, and Mnemon was slightly inferior in pure personal combat.

Neither of them had yet tapped into their fullest power. "You work rather well with fiends from hell," Mnemon sang in harmony with her adversary. "Yet frankly I can tell/  
That you're just going through the motions/  
Walking through the part/  
You don't have the--"

"Bitch, don't even staaaart!" In the blink of an eye, Buffy was no longer advancing on her from the front, nor twenty feet tall, but behind her, barely over five feet, and sliding the haft of her daikalbar into place against Mnemon's throat. Her anima banner had had time to fade to a mere flicker and a brightly-shining caste mark.

Drawing more power from the earth was painful and dangerous, but from the way Buffy fought, she had no reserves at all and, worse for her, she had no clear notion of her limits. She held back because she could not be sure of lasting through the fight. Mnemon dropped, slipping from her opponent's grasp, and struck the feet from under her. She was up at once, but Mnemon was free of her.

"I was always brave and kind of righteous/  
Now I'm not sure where to turn/  
Bluffing demon lords night after night just/  
Makes me wanna crash and burn."

"You've got lots to learn," Mnemon pointed out.

"It's not your concern," Buffy sang irritably. She burst into a mad flurry of blows, her daikalbar flickering back and forth, blade one moment and spike the next, light building back up around her. The earth shook in counterpoint, finally breaking her stride.

**Unbeatable**

"All you do is whine/  
You haven't time/  
To internalize the motions/  
Make the power your own," Mnemon began. Most of what Buffy did was strange to watch, but even she seemed not to understand what was happening as her anima flared brightly again. "Within the hour, you'll be overthrown."

Buffy's expression contorted, writhed, and abruptly split into two identical faces on two identical heads. Each head turned to look at each other, as much as they were able, with expressions of horrified disbelief. The Anathema also sprouted talon-like nails, but that was plainly trivial by comparison.

"I don't really care to fight you," the left head sang. "I just wanted to go home."

"You're gonna wish I had a gun,"" sang the right head. "I'm gonna make you scream and run."

"If you want to do the right thing/  
get lost, leave my city alone!"

Mnemon groaned. This Summers girl thought of the battle as some personal conflict between herself and Mnemon, when it was clearly no such thing.

"I lead a righteous cause/  
And without doubt or pause/  
I will do what the Dragons' will demands/  
Make any sacrifice/  
And pay whatever price/  
To maintain and to rule my mother's lands/  
So go on, do your worst/  
My will can't be coerced--"

She had an ending for that. She really did. Buffy's daikalbar came shrieking toward Mnemon's head, forcing her to dive and roll, and when she came up Buffy's right head was finishing some inane blather about sand. Distantly, Mnemon felt the earth groan.

"I will grind you into the dust, Anathema. Even if you force me to retreat, I will return with a greater army than this. I will be Empress, and you cannot withstand--"

"One fifth."

Mnemon paused. "What--?"

"You heard me. I want a deal. One fifth of Gem's, um...gross national product, and I...pledge my allegiance to you as Empress." Buffy's right head stared at her left as if it were mad. "In return, you go home and don't force me to kick your armored ass from here to Gethamane."

Madness indeed. "Greater powers than either of us--"

"You mean Ketchup Carjack?" The right head sneered. "He's a dead man. I helped kill him last week."

"You...what?" Ketchup...that almost sounded like the right name. "The Sidereals won't--"

Buffy leaned on her daikalbar, pointy end embedded in the sand. "Look at your army. Illyria's eating it alive. You're not Empress yet, your support in heaven is up in smoke, and you're not exactly the only possible heir to the Empire."

"I will not offer the hand of friendship to Anathema!" What was wrong with this absolute fool?

Buffy shrugged. "Don't, then. I offered you a win. You go home with Gem as part of the Realm, under me as governor. Salvage what's left of your army. Hell, I'll support your claim to the throne. Or you can make Gem the biggest Shadowland in the South, just waiting for a new Deathlord to, y'know, waltz in and take over. Your choice. Make it fast, cause I haven't got the foggiest how long it's been anymore." Buffy's right head rolled her eyes and spoke up. "Go ahead, make my day. I'm waiting to squish you into the sand headfirst. Say no. I dare you."

The ground rumbled and began to fracture. Mnemon made her decision.

*****

Willow's hand felt dry, brittle, and cold, but Tara clung to it anyway. "Everyone into the circle!" She had the entire population of the palace and as many civilians as they'd been able to gather here in this one room. Compared to Gem as a whole, they were a pitiful few. Darkness flickered around Willow as she finished the chant--flickered, rippled, surged, and swallowed them whole.

The tangle of words released them on the other side of the mountain walls, leaving Willow on her knees, gasping. "I have to--"

"Willow, you can't. You'll kill yourself trying."

"It'll just be me."

"No. Willow, there's no point in going back unless you're bringing more people, and you can't--" The ground shuddered and cracked, sending boulders tumbling down the outside of the walls. "You'll die."

"I'll get more energy from Raiton. She didn't come with us."

"Raiton performed some sort of sacrifice and left on her own," Tara explained. "Darker magics than I'd ever think of using just to teleport, but that's what she did."

Willow frowned and scanned the horizon. "Illyria."

"Yeah," Tara agreed. "It's still here. If Gem doesn't go kablooey from the elemental magic, that...thing will get it."

"Then we..." Something disturbing passed through Willow's eyes. "We have to kill it."

"Can we even do that?" Tara glanced at Shaia, who she was increasingly certain was not what she seemed to be.

"Destroy the Immaculate Embodiment  
of Rule?" Shaia rubbed her hands together as if washing them vigorously. "Well...it's been done before."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Willow cracked her knuckles, which sparked with black static.

"Illyria is no mere nightmare of the Neverborn, no behemoth's ghost. When it truly lived, it was the fetich soul of Malfeas himself." Shaia glanced up at the tentacled thing as it loomed closer. "That thing was Ruvelia."

*****

"You unleashed that creature," Mnemon said, her voice cold and hard as steel. "This is not about blame. I would have done likewise if you were attacking me. Now it is out of control. If your goal is a Gem at peace with my Realm, then fight it with me. Destroy it, if we can. Drive it away if not."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Buffy's right head said. Was she really that bloodthirsty? She sounded as if she wanted to rip the creature apart. Buffy reached up to stroke her hair briefly and acknowledged, "Raiton claimed she wouldn't let it attack Gem. At least, she implied it. Guess I should've known better."

"Than to trust a Deathknight?" Mnemon laughed bitterly.

"Hey, I resemble that remark." Her other head didn't contest the claim.

"And yet you object to me taking Gem from you." Mnemon's tone was so dry that Buffy needed a glass of water. No, that was just the heat.

"How about I go ahead and break you in two, then beat Illyria to death with your body parts?" Buffy's left head stared, wide-eyed. Wait. Wasn't she the left head? God this was confusing.

"If you think that plan will work," Mnemon said, "I'll try it out with yours. Otherwise, I suggest we limit ourselves to the constructive."

"Let me take five," Buffy suggested. "I promise you won't even notice I'm gone." For a moment it looked as if Mnemon would object; then the significance hit her and she waved Buffy on.

Buffy dove into the time field again. Two heads were almost as bad as telepathy.

*****

"Are we even able to hurt this thing?" Tara muttered. Willow had taken a couple of lightning bolt shots at Illyria that hadn't even struck home; already she seemed exhausted. Whatever new powers Exaltation had brought her, it'd screwed her over on the recharge front

"Quite possibly not," Shaia said. "We might not have any choice but to abandon the city."

"That's not what heroes do," Angel grumbled. Tara offered him a feeble grin. He wasn't wrong, but....

"And that," Spike pointed out, "is why there aren't very many of them."

"At least the ground's stopped trying to swallow it," Tara said, producing momentary puzzled stares from Willow and Shaia before they realized what she was sensing. Or rather, no longer sensing.

"We need a plan," Willow panted. "Can we run out the clock on the summoning?"

Shaia shook her head firmly. "Standard length on such bindings is a year and a day. It'd take maybe a quarter of the Exalted host to delay Illyria that long, and then there'd be no need to."

"Can you spare Red some energy?" Spike asked. "Maybe enough lightning would--"

"Not worth even trying," Willow said. "I mean, my magicks aren't even reaching her before they flicker out. And if we were closer, she could take our heads off before we could react."

Sulumor gave Willow a sidewise glance. She could no doubt empower Willow as well, but she'd been closed-mouthed so far even to the vampires, whom the rest of the Dune People had gradually taken to.

"What can _you_ do?" Angel asked Shaia.

"Most of my offensive capability is martial-arts related," the Sidereal explained. "I've mastered Crane Style and Arms of the Unconquered Sun, but I'd need to get in awfully close to use them. I know Quicksilver Hand of Dreams, aside from its capstone, but it might be a little abstract for our purposes. It manipulates the energies of dreams and the Wyld."

"The Wyld," Willow mused. "Everything's...more fluid in the Wyld, right?"

"Yes. It's very dangerous to--"

"Even time, I bet." Willow barely waited for Shaia's confirming nod. "I have a plan."

*****

"I don't understand this whole wild card thing!" Buffy sprinted back towards Mnemon, larger than normal but not the towering monster she'd been earlier--just a bit below seven feet, perhaps. "I change when my aura flares, but I can't get a bead on how!"

Mnemon shrugged her shoulders. "I thought the Yozis did a better job of informing their puppets."

"Sometimes," Buffy said irritably, looking up. "Pretty lights. Oh! Tara's signaling us!" Firefly beads of light circled overhead, then arced back around Illyria. "Someone's come up with a plan." Some of the flecks darted at the hekatonchiere and were extinguished, only to be replaced, forming an intermittent stream of light. "Attack."

"That's hardly a plan," Mnemon scoffed, but she knew there must be more that was going unspoken. She raised a hand, and white bolts of energy shot from it, transforming into gouts of stone as they flew toward the monster. "Your turn, Anathema."

"Too bad I couldn't do this when I was called." Buffy pursed her lips and blew a spout of green-tinged flame at Illyria. "Vampire slayage would've been about a million times easier."

What was left of Mnemon's legion--still a formidable force, a dragon or more--began to converge on them. Most of the survivors appeared to be Dragonblooded, which would be fortunate if chance had been involved. Mnemon gestured fiercely, and more elemental energies surged in Illyria's direction. Most of them seemed to peter out before reaching the monstrosity, and the rest were dodged easily, as if Illyria's massive bulk were naught but illusion.

The floating sparks began to spread out. Mnemon thought about that for a moment and began to shout orders. Attacks from all directions would no doubt be harder to dodge...a little. If Illyria didn't have all the time in the world in its own little pocket.

Buffy finally recharged and unleashed another gout of flame, which vanished without touching Illyria. Were they doing any damage at all?

*****

Sulumor grumped as she began to gesture at the creature, but her mood didn't prevent great bursts of sand from detonating beneath it.

"Work together," Willow sang softly. "Fight as one."

"Work together," Angel agreed. "Get it done."

"We're all here for different causes," Shaia murmured, performing a strange kata that left the world rippling around her.

"And tomorrow we'll be on our own," Spike sang with a chorus of Dune People before leading them off to try and get behind Illyria.

"But if we work together," Tara sang, her voice blending with Sulumor's, "we'll do things we can't do alone." The song wasn't as smoothly put-together as the spontaneous ones, but Tara had quickly discovered that trying to sing in a tense moment would bring the magicks to the fore. That was key. Music had its own timing...just like dreams.

"Work together," Shaia sang, echoed by Angel. "Close the ranks." The Sidereal strode forward into Illyria's time distortion as if it weren't even there. As if it were nothing but an illusion.

"Work together," Tara sang, closing her fingers on Willow's hand. "Forge new links."

Illyria was being bombarded from every direction now. The undead hellbeast roared and swung its tentacles, but most of its attackers were out of reach, widely separated, and covering each other. Illyria was having to bend time into a pretzel just to make one attack without taking fire from all over. Tara flung up a shield as a tentacle lashed her way. At least they were drawing it away from Gem.

"We've nothing much in common," Sulumor chanted, focusing methodically on her explosions. "And the great outpower the least."

"But if we work together," Willow began as Shaia wound up for a haymaker, "then we'll get to slay the beast!"

The world already felt stretched to the breaking point. Shaia struck only air...and everything shattered. Glassy fragments of reality flew outward, carried on a tide of chaotic energies that put even the hekatonchiere's power to shame. Tara clutched at her stomach, struggling to hold herself together as the magicks washed over her. Angel was down. Sulumor fell to her knees. Willow...where was she?

Spike struggled toward her, his forehead contorting with half a dozen little horns at his brow. "What's happening? You...what'd we do?" Rainbow scales rippled over her arms, gleaming in the overwhelming anima light.

"Willow!" Sulumor shrieked. "You fool! What have you done?" Energies burst all around Illyria; arrows and thrown daggers and great hunks of stone flew in every direction. Nothing touched the monster; every single attack went wide or decayed into oblivion before it could reach its target. "You've made it even more powerful!"

"Yup," Willow nodded, grinning. "Now we just have to keep her busy!" She dug deep, letters and numbers and black sigils of every sort flurrying around her, and flung another bolt of lightning.

Tara felt the balance shift again, very suddenly, just as she had felt it shift when Illyria first was drawn into the living world. A sharp shriek rose up, metal grating on bone, and shredded the veil between life and death, leaving a great grey hole behind Illyria. The beast clutched at the borders with its tentacles and caught only empty air. Glowing hateful eyes fixed on Tara, if only for an instant, and she knew that it had seen her to her deepest soul.

But the gap closed over it before any vengeance could be taken. Illyria was gone, swallowed once more by death.

Tara sank gasping to the sand under the memory of its gaze.

*****

Buffy inhaled, but there was no more need to breathe fire. Illyria sank into the grey hole, which healed behind her and was gone.

Mnemon lowered her arms weakly to her sides. "Of course," she muttered. "Of course. It defended itself by speeding up time. And both the Wyld and the song demon rendered time more fluid. The year and a day passed in minutes, and it cast itself out."

"Wish I'd thought of it," Buffy said. Not that she'd had any way of taking advantage, but this had the sound of a Willow idea. Being smarter than Willow had been fun. "Planning to keep your deal, or do I have to kick your ass?"

Mnemon scowled around at her decimated army. "No," she said at last. "I will accept. Even victory now would risk the appearance of weakness. I would destroy Gem in war if I needed to; I will not destroy it as the petulant act of a thwarted tyrant. Kneel, then."

"I'm not much for--"

"You offered to be my vassal. Accept my terms, or fight on as Anathema. Whatever may have happened in Yu-Shan, to the rabble you are still an affront to the Immaculate way." Mnemon's fingers tightened on her sword. "Either you must visibly submit, or I will have to kill you and deal with the consequences."

Buffy took a long, deep breath. Defend Gem at any cost, they told her. Well, there it was. She sank to her knees.

"Swear to follow the law of the Realm and to obey its rightful Empress," Mnemon intoned. She could snark with the best, but right now she was all formality.

Buffy crossed her fingers where they rested in the sand. "I swear."

*****

"God, Tara. What happened?" Willow ran her fingers up Tara's arms. The other witch's flesh was as dry as her own, now, hairless and covered in iridescent scales.

"The Wyld," Tara said softly. Even her scalp was bare. "It's okay, Willow. It's a small price to pay. I could've become a puppet, or stone, or a walking story."

Spike nodded in agreement. His brow ridges had given way to green, nobbly...spikes. "Could've gone a helluva lot worse." He drew back his hood, and Willow gasped, but the sunlight didn't so much as make him squint. "Can't complain."

Had Angel changed as well? He was swathed in robes again, and even her eyes couldn't see through them. "Gem's still standing."

"Yes," an unfamiliar woman's voice answered. "This day Gem acknowledges its place as a vassal of the Realm." Strangely, she sounded annoyed. Buffy walked beside her, one step behind...and several inches taller.

"This is a weird world," Willow grumped. "Buffy! You're okay?"

"For now," the Slayer said, laughing softly. "I've got a wedding real soon, and I don't know what the bosses are gonna say about what I just did, but I've been hurt worse fighting vampires."

Willow clutched Tara's hand as the marble-skinned Dragonblood walked off with some of her advisors. "You're okay with this? I thought you said Mnemon was a--"

"Don't," Buffy warned. "It's all true, but don't. Remember your world history classes? Uncle Joe?"

Willow nodded, wincing. Sometimes you worked with Stalin to beat Hitler, and paid for it later. As tyrants went, Mnemon wasn't even Stalin. King George III, maybe.

"I'm feeling okay," Buffy said. "I've got some of that strain off me, and now I just need to make a little room to maneuver. I'm nobody's idea of a good ruler, Will. I care too much. It hurts people when I screw up, and I can't just shake that off."

"But it's good that you care," Tara said encouragingly. "You'll do okay. You're not a bad ruler."

Buffy nodded, but threw out her hands. "I know that. Just...the weight on me...sometimes I wish I could just _not_ care. You know?"

Tara started to incline her head, slowly nodding her understanding, but a voice behind Willow suddenly rang out, imperious yet gleeful. "Done."

*****

She really should've made more effort to learn those symbols. Buffy had picked up this and that, here and there, but the demons of this world almost all spoke the language called Old Realm fluently. Now words were swirling around her in glowing green sand and she had no idea what they said. Almost certainly nothing good; she'd made a wish.

She ought to be furious.  Somehow, though, she couldn't summon the energy.  She'd agreed, and Sulumor didn't seem to have done her any harm.  If anything, she felt peaceful.   So she'd had a moment of weakness; help had been offered and she'd accepted.  Buffy glanced back at the city of Gem.  She'd gone to so much effort to protect them.  Why hadn't she let Mnemon destroy the city?  It was kinda dead weight, and she could go where she wanted and take what she needed.  She wouldn't have left Willow or Tara, of course.  They were friends, and she didn't have any good reason to hurt them.  They weren't demons, after all.  Yeah.  Sulumor had done her a favor.

Life was about to get a lot simpler.


	8. Unreal City

Halfrek's power center dangled from Faith's neck as she trailed Lilah's car.

Flying wasn't the best way to keep hidden, but after four--no, five days now--of Amy and Halfrek being missing, she desperately needed some fun to distract her. So here she was slipping through the twilit zone above the streetlights. Spiderman was right; people never looked up unless you made a spectacle of yourself.

Harmony said--and Faith saw no reason to doubt her--that Amy had made a stupid wish for power and immortality. She was probably sealed inside the jewel for all eternity, but every so often Faith realized she was rubbing the gemstone as if it would conjure Amy like a genie.

No luck so far. Faith reached back with one hand to find the holster on her hip. It was way past time to stop playing softball with Lilah. No jail could hold Faith anyway, and if she was wrong about that...well, it was worth it. She pulled out a revolver--not Kate's, one she had nicked, and--

Sand began to trickle from the amulet. In seconds the leak went from a tiny, feeble sprinkling to a powerful gust that sprayed grit in all directions. She couldn't see a damn thing! She tried squinting against the sand; there was still a chance.

A body solidified in front of her, shrieked in Amy's voice, and dropped. Reflexively, Faith's hands shot out and clutched hold of her, and Amy shrieked again, wrapped her arms around Faith's neck, and planted a kiss on her lips. 

**Chapter 34--Unreal City**

For a moment Faith was almost startled enough to drop her. Then she zoomed upwards--people would have heard that--until she reached rooftop level.

"Did I just do that?" Amy squeaked. "Sorry. I was, um...startled."

"I wasn't complaining," Faith said. "You could just go with it and see what happens. I won't bite...unless you ask me to." It'd been way too long, and if anything Amy was hotter than she remembered. Not just that she was back to her proper youthful self, but she looked firmer, and a little rounder, and...Faith couldn't place what had changed about her face. Something subtle but good.

"Ick," Amy muttered, scratching. "I've got sand all in my clothes." Sure enough, silvery grit was leaking out of her shirt, her pants, everywhere.

Still, what kind of response was she expecting? "Only one thing to do about that."

Amy blushed faintly. "Well, then get me home?"

"Sunnydale's a long way. We'll get you some clothes. Wanna shake these out for now?" If Kate didn't have the money, nicking some would be simple.

"In midair?"

Faith laughed. "Let's find a place to land." Why did she feel giddy like this? Amy was cool, sure, and good-looking too, but at most she'd be another fling. That was how it worked. You screwed and you split, or else you screwed, you fought, and then you split. "Beach okay?"

Amy raised her eyebrows. "Hey, that kiss was just...gratitude. I swear. Also I thought you might be Superman."

"Okay, Lois. So being grateful means you slip me some tongue? I'll definitely remember that." It was the slayage thing. She'd been going for the kill when Amy materialized.

"Um...I don't have a beach towel?" Yeah, real grateful there.

"Want, take...." Faith dropped low, landing in an alley behind a closed store. "...have. Back in five."

Sure enough, Amy was still waiting when Faith got back. "Extra large. Trust me, I know about sand. Stuff gets all over. Oh. And you look like a size--"

"Faith!"

"You'd rather skinnydip? Whatever floats your boat." Faith plopped the towel down in Amy's arms with the swimsuits wrapped inside, grabbed her around the waist, and was off again. "Look, I swear, if it's just 'gratitude', we can just swim. I got enough on my conscience." She'd have to break out the toys again tonight, but she wasn't gonna repeat her performance with Xander.

Amy was silent for several long minutes as they soared toward the beach. "Halfrek says the world could be ending and I'm being stupid."

This time the kiss was distracting enough that Faith scraped the side of a brick wall.

*****

Sam kicked off and bounced effortlessly to her feet, trailing streamers of flame. "Shoat!"

Shoat's head jerked back as Holtz's bullet struck her temple. Blood and brains fountained from the exit wound. Sam clenched her teeth and kept quiet. She'd pay him back with interest.

The eruption of red-grey goo reversed itself, flowing backward into Shoat's skull. Fragments of bone resealed the gap. Shoat stuck out her tongue at the old man and returned fire.

"Interesting," was all Holtz said. Another shot echoed across the warehouse, followed by a third as Kate's bullet knocked his from the air.

"Wasn't expecting that," Kate murmured. Why...? Oh. There was a rack of natural gas canisters near him, not quite empty. Sam fired off her rifle at it, the shot trailing a streamer of orange flame.

First a whump! Followed by a thunderous rumble as the cans exploded one at a time, spraying fire and metal shards in all directions. Holtz was forced to dive to the floor, not having mastered this invulnerability business. And Shoat, by way of contrast, came charging towards him, screaming, firing her rifle as if it had infinite ammo.

Holtz cried out but managed to slither behind a crate, from which point he was able to target Shoat again. She'd left herself wide open.

Sam leapt into the air, swinging her rifle down to target the hunter in midair. He raised a bloody arm and flung a knife at her. Military grade. Good steel. Headed straight for her side. This was why you didn't leap screaming at your enemy; there was no way to dodge. She twisted, and the knife grazed her shirt, leaving a neat little cut. She touched down on three points atop a table, only skidding a little.

Holtz's lips thinned. She'd pissed him off. Hell, she'd have been ticked about that herself.

Kate's revolver fired again. The bullet struck Holtz center mass, caught by his vest--and flung him backwards to crash into a crate! Momentum did not _work_ that way!

Shoat finally seemed to realize what she was doing. Her face reddening, she slipped behind some stacks of metal shelves. Holtz was already rising. He grimaced at the damaged vest and tore it off. Now!

Sam hurled herself forward, but as she did so, a blinding golden light flared around Holtz, forcing her to throw a hand over her eyes. The light cleared just in time for her to see a figure clad in riot gear, only made in shades of white and gold rather than the standard black. Holtz brought up an arm holding a shield, clear save for the brilliant sunburst emblem, and batted her aside.

Sam rolled to a stop against the wall. God _damn_ , he was powerful! He knew what he was doing, and whatever he didn't know he was learning fast. Faith had better be finishing the job and getting back here. Three on one, and he was kicking their asses.

*****

Drusilla tittered and clapped. It was good to remember that she saw and understood twice as much as she let on. Mad or not, she was a devil.

Sarah Holtz watched the little box on the wall. Papa was doing well. But was he doing _good_? The other people in the moving picture seemed to have demonic powers, sure enough, but then Papa also had powers she had never seen him use before now. Satan also could be an angel of light, and the Lilah woman's actions were diabolical for certain. She could not not cheer for Papa, but should she hope for him to win? Or to escape?

 _If Satan casts out Satan,_ she recited, _then he is divided against himself and his kingdom has an end._

Dark magic had brought her back from death. But how was a power that slew demons and raised the dead dark? Papa might not approve of such reasonings, but he had done his best to raise her to think. Satan deluded; enlightenment was from God. In this strange new world, her best hope was knowledge.

One of the women fighting Papa suddenly became a bear. That didn't sound like a godly thing. But it was certainly not godly for Lilah to transform Sarah back into a demon and threaten her father by holding a stake to her heart.

Perhaps neither side served God, not by their own will at least. Then to set them at each other's throats would weaken Satan and serve God.

Drusilla turned to look at her and drew a finger across her lips. Did she know Sarah's thoughts?

That would be a great problem to overcome indeed.

*****

Amy finally sat up. She was sweaty, but weirdly not nearly so exhausted as she ought to be. From the look of her, Faith wasn't even that; she was barely perspiring at all.

"You're glowing," Faith said with a frown.

"I'm what?"

"You've got a...little hole on your forehead with a little green flame. Like an eye. Shoat glows. Kate glows. Sam glows. How come I don't glow?"

Amy flung out her hands. "What kind of a time is it for that question?"

Faith sighed and started pulling on her bikini top. "It's getting late and I was supposed to be killing Lilah Morgan before she gets elected President."

"And you, uh...skipped out on that so we could screw?" Amy tried really hard to sound disapproving. Didn't work.

"I was about to do it when you dropped in," Faith grumbled. "We still have a few months. Hell, looks like you're one of us now. Wanna join in?"

"Er...I have no idea what I'm doing?" If she had powers now, what were they?

"Best way to find out," Faith said, handing over Amy's suit, "is jump in the deep end." She stood and offered Amy her hand.

Amy shrugged, took it, and stood. Faith grabbed her around the waist, this time groping her ass. "Up, up, and away!"

"Hey! Not dressed yet!"

Faith only laughed.

*****

Kate still felt like herself. Maybe she wasn't really a werebear, at least not in the sense she'd thought. Some of the powers she'd used didn't seem...were-ish...anyway. She wasn't a Slayer, or what Sam or Shoat were either. Was there maybe an infinite variety of powers in whatever storehouse Lilah had found?

Not really the time for philosophical questions. She went down on all fours and barreled into Holtz, wishing she could see his face clearly. Was he surprised by this, or did he already know she could transform?

Too bad it wasn't her time of the month. Two days ago the aura that enhanced her strength had become something else, something she wasn't sure of the use for. It swallowed her in light so she couldn't be recognized, but was that what it was for?

Close in like this there wasn't much room for the others to attack. Kate savaged Holtz through the riot gear and hoped they wouldn't need to.

She hoped in vain. Holtz pierced her side with another one of those knives, leaving her gasping for breath. Maybe he'd got a lung. Were they even able to beat him in a straight-up fight? Msybe there was some other level they could best him on. What did Lilah have on him to get him to work for her? He seemed like a religious man, and while that sometimes made for problems, Lilah was clearly on the side of hell. 

A burst of flame shot past, singeing her fur. It was good having someone to watch her back, at least. Holtz grunted and stabbed at her again.

_Damn it, where's Faith when you need her?_

*****

"...so it was like every nightmare I've ever had all rolled up in one. Even if you'd been awful in the sack...and you definitely weren't...I needed the grounding. So, um...thanks."

"Geez...it was nothing. I mean I...." Faith trailed off uncomfortably, leaving Amy convinced that she was trying not to say it was just a fling. The Slayer had literally saved her life, and while it was maybe too soon to worry about love and all that mushy bit, she'd done it by forging a supernatural connection between them. Amy could hear not just what Faith said, but some of what she didn't.

"Faith...even if you don't want to be involved with me...I know you're one of the good guys. I believe in you, okay? So don't start in about taking advantage or not being able to have a relationship. I promise, it's okay."

Faith flew on in silence for a few monents. "You mentioned Halfrek. She in there?"

Amy decided there was no point trying to hide the truth. "Yeah. She's here with me. She can't do anything but talk to me. But yeah, she was ok with it...us, I mean."

Faith frowned and Amy thought she might be about to say that, no, _she_ wasn't ok with _Halfrek_. Before either of them could speak, the bundle of clothes started beeping. "Shit! Phone!" She began fumbling through the bundle.

"Here," Amy said, and pulled out the cell phone.

"Talk to 'em," Faith warned. "I gotta keep one arm out. Dunno why, but I do."

"Um. Hi...Shoat? You what? Crap! Faith, forget Lilah! We've got to get across town!" Faith started to ask, so Amy explained. "Holtz! It's that demon hunter Holtz!"

"Damn it," Faith grumbled. "What's he got against us?"

*****

Holtz gave the bear a mighty shove and rolled it off him, its wounds seeping blood. One down. Not the most dangerous.

The fire-wielder was now surrounded by a burning aura. She was running low on energy, but closing with her would be painful. The necromancer child either was keeping her zombies in reserve or she had none here. She was the most dangerous. He could feel some distant...kinship with her, as if they had once been the same kind, perhaps known one another.

The necromancer screamed something incoherent and probably blasphemous. Once she might have reminded him of his lost little girl, but against all odds Sarah had been returned to him. Her weapon should have been out of ammunition, but he had realized long since that she ran out only if she chose. The burning woman conjured a clip in a burst of flame and changed her weapon out. Less efficient, but still effective.

Before the girl could open fire again, Holtz shot the burning woman in the arm. So far that one had acted with a military discipline, though a bit lax as he saw it. He believed he could kill her more easily, but he needed the girl distracted. She had proven very difficult to injure.

Indeed, the necromancer screamed at him once more. She was, after all, but a child. Holtz lifted his rifle. He would keep firing until she fell.

High above, a huge windowpane shattered, showering glass everywhere. That would be the Slayer named Faith. He had never heard of a Slayer who could fly, but once in Bavaria he had known one who could move so quickly as to be invisible. She'd been very helpful.

Faith was the one the necromancer had called, which made her a traitor to the cause. He need have no qualms about killing her.

"Goddess Hecate, work thy will--" A witch! The rogue Slayer was working with a witch? Disgusting! Hastily Holtz scanned the room and spotted a swirl of silver lights like blowing sand. "Before thee let--" Holtz opened fire, one rapid shot after another. The last thing he needed was to be transformed into vermin. The witch dove for cover, not finishing her spell. Still, her presence was a problem.

Holtz quickly scanned the room. The necromancer was crouched over the bear-woman's body. The fire-soldier seemed to be binding her wounds. He could not see the witch, but he knew she was behind a pile of crates. Where was the Slayer?

She came charging down from the ceiling, tearing a dangling lamp free. The cord remained attached, doubtless intentionally. Faith slashed a ragged length of metal along it, removing the coating. That...made no sense. Why?

But he had best not let her do whatever she was planning. He lifted his weapon again. "The last thing I wanted to see--" she began, as he shot her twice in the chest. She deflected the first with the lamp, but the second struck home. Strange. If she were truly running out of energy, why didn't she glow? And what about him did she not want to see?

A crate slammed into his chest, flinging him backwards. The lamp cord rose, shooting sparks like lightning. It must be the witch, but where was she? Ripples of light and force radiated from behind another stack of boxes. There.

Too many unknown factors were entering the situation, however. Slayers healed quickly, as might these others, and he had not yet had time to finish them off. Holtz fired a burst into the stack of crates as he calculated a path to the nearest door.

The witch flung the lamp cord at him, but it was stopped short of him by its remaining moorings, and he took the moment to dash through the exit. He might need help to finish them all; at the least he would have to separate them. A crate struck the door behind him. They were hurt, at least. If he returned soon, he might be able to take advantage.

*****

"Shit," Faith snarled. "He's getting away." But they were all injured except Amy, and Kate was barely breathing. Asshole. Riot gear was _not_ something she liked to see these days.

"Anyone know first aid?" Shoat's tone suggested barely-controlled panic. Something had suddenly changed about her relationship to Kate in the last couple of days. "We need to get her to the hospital!"

"She's a bear," Sam pointed out reasonably. "We'd need a vet. Kate, can you hear us? Change back if you can."

Silver light flickered around Kate. She didn't transform, but her wounds glimmered and sealed over. With a great heave she pushed herself to all fours and shook herself. Only then did she revert to her human shape. "Sorry," she murmured. "I was running low on energy, decided to play possum, and greyed out. Now I see why." She tugged on her bloodsoaked shirt, then patted Shoat's head. "Sorry, kiddo. I didn't mean to scare you."

Shoat winced, then steeled herself and hugged Kate. Faith hissed through her teeth--the last time Shoat had hugged anyone there'd been a burst of black fire that burned Shoat's arms--but nothing happened. Weird.

Amy hovered nervously in the background until Faith grabbed her by the arm and pulled her closer. "You saved the day, Ames. I don't wanna hear anymore about not knowing how to use your powers."

"Um...still kinda don't," Amy pointed out before Kate cut her off.

"Good to see you back, but Faith, are we going to hear good news about Lilah on the morning news?"

Faith hung her head. "Got distracted when Amy materialized outta nowhere. Spoiled my shot anyway."

Sam groaned. "Well, we keep trying. We've got to get her soon."

"No hard feelings about the shot," Faith said hastily. "Or afterwards. We probably couldn't have found her again anyway." Amy stared at her feet despite the reassurance.

"We need to get patched up," Sam said as if to fill the silence. "Anyone think they should go to the hospital?"

"Faith, you've got a bullet in your chest," Amy said. "You--"

"I'm the Slayer, I'll heal. Anyway what do I tell them?"

"Gang members on PCP," Amy said firmly.

"Does that really work in Sunnydale?" Kate asked with a frown.

"All the time," Amy insisted. "It'll work once here. We should all get looked at just in case. But especially Faith."

Faith tried to heave a big fake sigh, which turned into a coughing fit. "Fine," she wheezed. "If I gotta."

*****

"So," the demon said. "We have a solution to your parasite problem." Sarah listened, but kept her eyes squinted shut. She was supposed to be sleeping.

"Shoot," Lilah said.

"Oh, nothing so crude. The company has a holding cell ready for you."

"A what? Did I hear you propose to lock me up?" Lilah said acidly.

"Not at all. You'll have the key and be living a nice suburban lifestyle. At the rate of about one month per day of real time. Campaign reporters will be told you have the flu."

"But I still have to shove the little monster out of me?" Lilah bared her teeth at that as if she were a vampire showing its fangs.

"Perhaps not," Mara said. "Some of the prophecies related to Darla's baby may no longer be valid, but they do say 'there will be no birth'. My guess is we can set you up with a proper Caesarian section and then we dump the kid in a nice uncomfy hell dimension to die. No problem at all."

Lilah grinned broadly this time. "Sounds like a plan."

Sarah didn't think they had noticed the strange motes of light outside the window in the slightest.

*****

On South Sepulveda Boulevard in the small hours the breeze blew cold and stank of decay. Clouds clotted the night sky and turned the moon red. Blood sputtered in a lone leaky sink and screensavers flickered with spectral images.

In the cemetery, old graves shuddered and yawned, and just beyond the fence a shadow became something more: a hole into nothing and nowhere, which shat out a figure in darkness, folded in on itself, and was gone. A pair of headlights sputtered out rather than illuninate the new arrival.

Weeping Raiton Cast Aside studied her surroundings and strode off into the early, misty gloom. The Neverborn's siren call told her all she needed to know.


	9. Check and Mates

"So," Iron Siaka said. "I want you to be absolutely clear on something. The Bronze Faction's relative loss of power has no consequences to you at all. You are not an Exalt of any sort. You are a mortal who has some temporary use. If you lay another hand on me, I can curse you to spend the rest of your life failing at everything unless you crawl on your hands and knees begging my forgiveness every five minutes."

Cordelia stood and listened patiently until Iron Siaka was finished. Then she slapped her on the other cheek.

"Are you--?"

"You listen to me, you jumped-up little dictator. I'm Xander Harris' friend. I rescued Fred Burkle from being a slave. I'm not afraid of you. But if I didn't know either of them, I'd still stab myself through the heart before I spent my life groveling to you. You want to tell me about safety rules? Fine. Listening. But if you want to treat me like a five-year-oahhhh!!!!"

Cordelia's eyes rolled back in her head.

_The shadow of that hideous strength/  
Six miles and more it is of length._

_It filled the sky like a stretched-out eclipse, a shadow serpent old as eternity and malicious as the beast that gnawed the root of the tree of life. It could see through her eyes into her darkest heart. Before death began it already hated life._

_And now it writhed, dying, above the Blessed Isle._

_** Mercy! I beg you, mercy! Power, wealth beyond dreams, immortality, anything you desire, but spare me! ** _

_** I am a world unto myself, the Principle of Opposition, an architect of Creation, you dare not lay your hand upon such a one as I! ** _

_** Death was never made for my kind, we broke the gears when you slew us, you dare not, must not-- ** _

_** I CANNOT DI-- ** _

_Silence. Shadow breaking up as the light shone through._

_Buffy, her face twisted in a crazed grin._

Cordelia inhaled once, muttered "Crapola," and fell to the floor.

*****

"So what's the plan?" Xander stood on a catwalk high above a great open space that had been filled with workbenches. Below him scores of sharkpeople passed components to the next worker, snapped or screwed another piece into place, and passed them on again.

Anya put her hands on her hips. "The Conventions are asking me to investigate personally. Then, unless this turns out to be Buffy's idea of an April Fools' prank, you and a crack Sidereal team go after her while Luthean troops keep order in Gem."

"That's one hell of a long-distance operation, Anh." At the end of the line, a pair of workers carefully wrapped and stacked the finished machine guns--crude, but easy to make and maintain. "It's because of me?"

Anya nodded, a worried frown on her face. "Halta's in chaos, Lookshy is preparing an attack on the Blessed Isle, Thorns is gearing up its zombie army....Buffy taking Gem was the tip of the iceberg. Some of the operations after Gem failed, but someone's coordinating attacks on Creation, and it looks like the Deathlords are cooperating with the Infernals for now."

"Not Skullstone?" Xander began strolling towards a staircase, and Anya followed.

"Luthe seems to have thrown him off. Your technology here is some of the best in the world, so he's holding back. If I were him, I'd be trying to steal some."

"So because I'm your guy, and because we don't expect an attack here yet, I leave the city unguarded? Two words, Anh. Pearl Harbor." He walked over and picked up one of the finished weapons, breaking open the feed line.

"One other reason, Xander. They're expecting us to deal with Buffy." Anya picked up a gun as well. "Defective." He stared at her. "I know my tommy guns, Xander. This trigger's not connected right."

"No, I believe that part easy, Anh. But Lytek--"

"He can't fix her, Xander. Word came up today. Her Exaltation, maybe, when she's dead. Not her. But Luthe does have one option we don't. It's got Fred."

"So we take Buffy home?" Xander reached around to scratch the back of his neck. "Fred's close, but what makes them think we can do a better job? Or is this just a NIMBY thing?"

Anya sagged. "They're saying maybe...instead of sending Buffy home...just dump her somewhere. Elsewhere. The far reaches of the Wyld. Drop her down the well of Oblivion, maybe. Tell her she's going home but...."

Xander held her by the shoulders and pulled her up. "If we have to kill her, I'll do it in a fair fight. And you know as well as I do, there's nowhere we can drop Buffy that she won't come back from, only pissed."

"You think I don't know that? But Buffy does need us, Xander. We left her alone here for too long." Anya fiddled with the gun, then put it back on the pile with a brief satisfied grin. "She deserves to see you again, one way or another."

"So I'll see her." Buffy might be a queen, but he knew Buffy. She was alone, and that meant she was miserable.

*****

"Oh, God, yes! Yes, yes! Spike! Angel!"

Tara averted her eyes from the Buffy sandwich. "Maybe I should come back at a better time?"

Buffy sat up, glistening with sweat. "What? No, Tara. We need to....ahhhh!...talk." A wisp of bloody vapor curled from the Slayer's mouth and solidified into a second, equally naked, Buffy. "That's getting easier," the original gasped, and went back to her...business.

The duplicate Buffy made a face and grabbed up a robe. "C'mon, Tara. Let's go somewhere private."

"Buffy," Tara said urgently as soon as the door closed, "what did Sulumor do to you? You've g-got to stop this. You promised people things would get b-better, but now--"

"I know," the double whispered. "What Sulumor did...she granted Buffy some new powers, and we don't get to share them. Lucky us. I don't have the power to not feel guilty about what she's doing. But if she gives me an order, I also don't have a choice. I can't resist her."

Tara winced. "Isn't one of you on the throne?"

"Always. The real Buffy's too busy eating, partying, and screwing to pay attention to running things. But, Tara, I don't know how to run a country! And anyway, if she catches me disobeying she'll just give me orders on what to do...or else let me dust." Buffy sat down on a bench and hung her head. "I'm like a vampire, except without the fighting. I'm so evil and skanky...and I think I might be bi."

Tara didn't comment on that; Willow had told her too many stories about Buffy's escapades with Faith. "I wouldn't know. But you've got to do something."

"I don't have the power to stand up to her, Tara. Besides, what am I suppossd to do? Overthrow _myself_? If I did have the power, if I were still the Slayer, even then, why would anyone believe me?"

Tara breathed deep and tried to stay calm. "What did she want you to tell me?"

"Willow--the Hanged Scholar, I mean--has a visitor waiting. He showed up right after Mnemon left. An emissary from the Deathlords."

"Which one? They don't work together much. From the Walker in Darkness?"

"I...don't think so?" Buffy stroked at the side of her hair. "He called himself.. Son of Crows."

*****

"I need that favor," Fred said to the short, sun-bronzed woman wearing the uniform of Captain Redfang's crew. The Tya seemed uneasy about accepting outsiders, especially women, but somehow this one had persuaded him. Fred knew he had nothing to worry about, but not how Leviathan had gone about joining.

"Rather soon, isn't it?" Leviathan went on inspecting the engines. "Ugh. I badly damaged so many of these. Shameful."

"I know, I know, I've got a favor I could hold over you for decades. It's just not my way of doing things. And I need it now. I'm really close to figuring out how to open a portal and send my friends home."

Leviathan backed out of the engine and sat on the housing. "Dreamer, I know things that would curl your hair, but not the first thing about making gateways between worlds. How do you need my help?"

"I can't do it here. It's the Loom of Fate that's interfering. I need to go somewhere out of its reach, or where it's weaker, at least. A Shadowland, a Wyld zone, something like that. I estimate it'll take at least a week, maybe more, just to get where I _can_ test it."

"Dreamer-of-Reason, what are you trying to ask me?" A bemused expression spread across Leviathan's face.

"Simple. I need you to be me while I'm gone." Fred winked at him. "Before you ask, I'm leaving Luthe in Xander's hands, not yours. You'll be his advisor, but people will believe you're in charge. Or actually, that I am."

Leviathan cursed under his breath. "After all the trouble you went to--"

Fred cut him off. "I do _not_ have to rule this city. I've had approximately a baker's dozen Lunars tell me I should step down eventually anyway. If I come back and find you in charge, but you haven't changed anything, why would I care?"

"One problem remains, Dreamer. How do you expect me to take your shape? I have no interest in hunting you down, either out of hatred or for challenge." Leviathan grinned broadly, as if this were the silliest thing imaginable.

"I, um...I just figured...you didn't kill Amyana."

Leviathan rocked back in his seat and began to bellow with laughter. "No, no, that I certainly did not. I suppose I can't expect you to know the elder mysteries of Luna. By the secret name of Malfeas, most of the elders don't recall some of them." He leaned forward and peered into her eyes. "You want to give me your shape the way Amyana did? Well, I suppose you're not bad-looking, for a bag of sticks." Slowly his laughter subsided until it was as gentle as ripples in a tide pool. "That was not meant to hurt your feelings. I'm sorry. My people, like many Westerners, tend to be large. Amyana herself was quite thin and small by our standards. You are far from ugly. If you wish me to take your form in that way, I am agreeable. A thousand years have ground the monogamy out of me. I must ask one question."

"I, uh...." Did he mean what that sounded like? Did she want to go through with a proposal like that? Damn it all, Xander was getting all the sex he wanted, and she'd been going without for five years now. "Ok, what do you want to know?"

Leviathan spread his arms wide. "Any child I beget will certainly inherit some of my power. Do you want to bear one or no?"

What the hell. It didn't get any more well-provided-for than royalty. And she'd wanted kids someday. And apparently Exalts had easy pregnancies. By the time she got huge--if she did--things would've settled down. "Er...sure. I can go with that."

*****

Gunn opened his eyes. His hands had been pressed together so long they seemed stuck together. "I coulda told you, meditation ain't my strong suit."

Harim laid his hands on Gunn's back. "You are not doing badly. All we Arbiters are men and women of action. When we act, we act with focus; that is all."

Gunn lifted his axe, studying the edge. "When you gotta kill, it don't do any good to hold back."

"Indeed not. You are a good student, Charles."

"Yeah, well, thanks, but honestly I'm not sure I wouldn't rather be learnin' to dance, like Cordy."

Harim patted his back once and stood. "On the contrary: if you were unsure, you would already have gone."

Gunn followed the motion, rising to his feet, observing the bound god before him. "You tried to kill Xander, just for being a Solar."

"I...no! No! I was not involved, I swear!" The god struggled, but its ropes were proof against its efforts.

Gunn lifted his axe and severed them. "You're free. I know the Bronze Faction paid you off." The spirit rubbed its wrists and dashed for the door.

Gunn's axe spun in a half-circle, bit into the corrupt god's back, and slammed it to the floor in a dissolving pool of Essence. "Said you were free. Didn't say I'd let you live."

*****

"I want your blessing," Iron Siaka explained. "That's all."

Venus shifted slightly and leaned forward, disturbing her sheer robes and making Siaka gulp. "You want my blessing," she repeated. "To break an oath sacred to me--indeed to all my sisters--you want my blessing?"

"Anya and I aren't compatible at all," Siaka explained hastily. "I made the bond because it was the only way to save her life, and honestly I regrer doing that much."

"You regret saving a new yet powerful Sidereal whose destiny was so unspeakably important she cut into the Great Dance for the purpose of gaining her Exaltation?" The Maiden of Serenity was becoming agitated. Bad sign. "Well, I certainly don't." Venus' robes fell open about the chest, leaving Siaka to try not to hyperventilate. Human eyes, even Exalted ones, weren't meant to behold the Maidens in their full glory. "Do as you choose, Iron Siaka, but don't imagine you have my approval. Samsara brought you together for a reason, and while I won't go so far as to force you...I. Do. Not. Approve of your leaving." She leaned back in her seat. "Totally your decision, of course." And she began to file her nails.

Iron Siaka bowed her head low and slunk out.

*****

"I don't know about you, Rupert, but I must admit: I never thought to study sorcery in heaven itself." Wesley examined the diagrams with a frown. "Fascinating place."

"This is not heaven," Rupert argued with him. "It isn't even a good facsimile. And you must not forget our real purpose. Have you found it?"

Wesley nodded. "It's no wonder we depleted their entire stockpile. A key component of the mixture was 'alchemical blood of the line of Dieres Vhien,' one of the founders of the Watchers' Council."

Rupert stared at him. "How, pray tell, did you find such a thing here?"

"I didn't," Wesley explained. "I found a substitute. Vhien was supposed to have been descended from an obscure line of gods, thus his magical prowess. Investigating here, I found a reference to the 'children of breeding'. Apparently in the First Age, the gods of certain eugenic programs were interbred with the subjects of those programs over a period of millennia. Most of those bloodlines have been lost, but one of Anya's clients was once a divinity of such a program, several times removed. I took his ichor for the purpose, and indeed it was more potent than Vhien's, if anything."

Giles blinked. "Then our world must be this one's future after all. And this god is in danger of his life."

"Not at all," Wesley said. "He was slain in the riots."

"Then no more toxin can be made here." Rupert grimaced and set his book down. "I doubt we can convince the Exalted there's no longer a threat."

"No," Wesley mumbled. "No chance at all." Then, abruptly, looked up. Something had moved in the stacks as he spoke. "Damn. We had best return to Anya."

"At once," Rupert agreed.

*****

"They do look cute together," Willow sighed.

"He's a demon," Angel protested. "An out-and-out prince of hell, so don't look at me that way."

Tara nodded solemnly. "And yet...they are cute."

Angel made a disgusted noise in his throat.

"It's a marriage of state," Spike insisted stubbornly. "Not like they're gonna be boning day and night. Or at all, I expect."

"That's not what Sweet told me," Tara said, scratching at the rough scales on her neck. She needed more water. "They're going to go consummate the marriage in Buffy's new mansion in Malfeas."

"What?' Spike leapt from his seat. "She's out of her mind! Angel, we--"

"Exactly," Angel said flatly. "She won't thank us."

"She had a plan," Willow brought up, "but I don't know if she'll go through with it now." She took Tara's hand and gently pulled it away from her neck. "Shouldn't talk about it here."

Buffy and Sweet finished their waltz and vanished in a pulse of light and smoke.

"Good luck, Buffy," Tara said under her breath.

*****

Ma-Ha-Suchi came to a halt on the scrublands. He needed a new form, but it refused to take shape. His body burned and boiled with power, but could not be forced to hold still. His beastmen waited on his command.

Finally he managed to force his body into the shape of a giant sidewinder. It would do. He had consumed the Heart's Blood of one mate.

This "Buffy Summers, Despot of Gem" was next.


	10. In Rats' Alley

Sparkling lights descended like a blizzard onto the crystalline towers of the empty city of Thanel where it rested near the heart and brain of Autochthonia. Cloudy inclusions and cracks now raddled much of the Pole of Crystal, but here at least the Great Maker's processors were clear and undamaged.

The lights coalesced into one mass which flowed into the highest, central tower, and the mass fused into a single humanoid form like a golden statue--yet a statue that moved and breathed.

"Transcendent Architect," spoke the voice of the city. "You have returned. Are the prophecies coming to pass?"

"As predicted," Transcendant Architect acknowledged. "The Slayer has departed and the Prison cracks open. The Unclean has awoken and the Seraph descended. The Master has returned. I have not seen the Condor land, though it may come soon, nor is there carnage in the streets."

"We can only hope the Condor does land soon," intoned the voice of the city. "The portal will not reopen until Abaddon walks the Earth."

"Then he had better walk it soon," the Architect mused. "You bought Autocthon several thousand years, but now he's dying faster than ever."

"You know I cannot return through the portal," the city said. "My avatars require my presence on the same dimensional plane."

"I know, Nelumbo," the Architect acknowledged. "Killing Buffy Summers will be up to me."

*****

"I don't get it," Faith admitted. "You glow, your witchy stuff is stronger, but _you're_ not any stronger."

"Y'think?" Amy held the compress over her eye and groaned. "Maybe I've got some totally different power and I can't be any stronger."

"Maybe," Faith said. She hadn't meant to hurt Amy at all. It was her fault. Again.

"Um," Harmony said, trying to sound cheery, "maybe if you planned out some tests instead of just guessing?" She held out a list on notebook paper, festooned with little pictures of hearts and unicorns.

Amy took it. "Sounds sensible to me," she said, shooting Faith an accusing look. Basic physical tests. Sparring. Academic "stuff", which Harm seemed to think was mostly memorization. What? "Flirting? What the hell, Harmony?"

"Lilah gets people to do whatever she wants," Harmony said reasonably. "It could be a special power thing, but what if she's just...good at it? I mean, the way Slayers are good at fighting."

"Huh. Yeah, that's what I thought," Faith admitted. "I suggested that to Kate." 

"I can't do all of this, Harm. I've got to eat and sleep!" Amy laughed and marked out some of the list. "Good ideas though. You really are learning to think things through."

"Thanks," Harmony said. She grinned bashfully and fled.

"Not as dumb as she looks," Amy acknowledged.

***

"I feel like that scene from Unbreakable," Amy said as Faith added more weights to the barbell.

"Funny," Faith snickered. "You don't look like Bruce Willis. You're a lot sexier though."

"How high is it?"

"Getting up around five hundred pounds." Faith said nervously. "You ok down there?"

Amy grunted and--slowly, painfully--lifted the barbell from its moorings. "Think...that's all I've got," she wheezed, and set it down.

"Not much by Slayer standards," Faith admitted. "But it's a hell of a lot more than you look like you can handle."

Amy slithered off the bench and stood. Without warning, Faith tossed the hundred-pounder she was holding at Amy. The witch threw her hands up too late, half-caught it one-handed, and promptly dropped it, skipping aside just in time. "Faith! What the hell!"

"I don't get it," Faith backpedaled. "That should've been nothing. I thought..." She trailed off, her face a confused, helpless mask.

Amy decided to let it go. Faith was right; if they were at all the same that should've been an easy catch. "It wasn't on the schedule," she said thoughtfully.

***

Faith's foot climbed toward Amy's face in what seemed to be slow motion, and Amy spun aside. It was slightly harder than blocking the Slayer's fists, but sparring was on the list even if the kick wasn't.

"Five by five," Faith acknowledged. "Not on my level, same as before, but still better than you should be."

Amy went with her whim. She put a hand on one hip, leaned against a bench, and fluttered her eyelashes a little. "Wanna take a break?"

Faith burst into laughter. "I'd love to, but it's not on the schedule. Any other time I'd say fuck the schedule, but Lilah's still on the loose cause we did that last week."

Failure. Which meant success. "Okay, let's break out the homework."

***

Fifteen tests later, Amy was feeling much more confident about what was happening. Fourteen aced tests, while the one she'd taken out of order at random had gotten her the equivalent of a B-. Okay, she knew algebra pretty well. But she'd never even gotten to study calculus, the last paper she'd done, and she'd still gotten every problem right. That was just...impossible.

"Time," Faith said belatedly. "Wish I could do that, but I guess it's just not part of the Slayer package."

"Since when do Slayers come with a _package_?" For best results, hopefully Faith had forgotten this part of the schedule. "Not that I'm complaining, of course. I'll take whatever you got."

Faith's eyes widened. "Shit, Amy. I knew we were gonna do this, but...all of a sudden it's like I went ten rounds with Dracula an' then he got away." She sidled toward Amy. "Damn! I'm about ta pop right here."

"All just part of the test," Amy said with a wink.

Faith put one hand in Amy's hair and clenched tight. "It better not b--" The Slayer squeezed her eyes shut. "I mean, please don't do that to me, Ames. I gotta...I gotta go if we're not gonna--"

Amy reached into Faith's hair and took careful, deliberate hold. "We're gonna. I'm sorry. A little teasing _was_ part of the test."

"Okay," Faith said heavily. "Just...I nearly raped and killed Xander once. Would've, if Angel hadn't stopped me. I gotta feel like I'm halfway in control of myself, Amy. K?"

Amy nodded. "I'm sorry. Never again." She'd had her experiment. She knew how her powers worked now. She kissed Faith forcefully on the lips. "Bedrooms are free right now."

Faith grinned. "You're on."

*****

"They're having sex," Buffybot said. She didn't sound quite as excited about it as she did about most things.

"Good times," Harmony agreed. Faith didn't interest her, but if the Slayer was happy and she wasn't dust, Harm was happy too.

"I'm going to go talk to Mr. Wood," the Bot said. "I'm bored and I miss sex. Maybe I should go back to Warren."

"No!" Harm said. "He was totally taking advantage of you! I hope you find someone soon, but you deserve better." That was what you were supposed to say, right? "We can go out and patrol while Faith's busy helping Amy. That'll keep you distracted."

"O-kay," Buffybot grumbled. "I guess I don't really want to go back to Warren."

"Good. Let's see if anyone else is game." If anything really tough came along, they could use the help.

*****

"Behold," the Master intoned. "Behold the weapon from before this Age dawned. A weapon made by the Old Ones themselves!" They had not taken on their present form then, but that was of little matter.

Weeping Raiton Cast Aside might have smiled at him; her mask shifted slightly. He did not need her approval, but she had her uses.

"Come to me," he said, beckoning. "Come forward and take it. Take history beyond mankind's history in your hands."

The acolyte reached out and opened the golden box, revealing a cavity filled with oily shadow. She touched it, and it flowed up and over her hand, coating her in darkness.

"It stinks of her," the acolyte murmured disapprovingly. "I can smell the Slayer on it."

"She has worn it," Weeping Raiton agreed. "That is why the Neverborn led me to this one. Wear it well, child of night."

"She was never worthy of it," the Master said. "Is it not a gift more fitting to you?"

"Yes," the acolyte said after a long pause. "Yes. Thank you for the present, great-grandpapa."

"You are most welcome, my dear Drusilla."

*****

"Can't say I like being out hunting vamps with a vamp," Robin said under his breath. Harmony glanced over her shoulder and scowled at him.

"Werewolf," Oz reminded him.

"Do you even change anymore?' Robin asked.

"You wouldn't like me when I'm angry," Oz said. "Don't make me angry."

"I was suspicious of Harmony too," Buffybot said, "but she's been good so far. And if she's bad, Shoat can kill her with a thought."

"Please don't remind me," Harmony complained. "I try to only think about it when I wanna do something bad."

"You think of doing bad things much?" Robin wondered.

"Not when I'm out hunting," Harm admitted. "I can be violent and no one thinks it's bad if I'm only hurting demons."

Robin made a face. She didn't like it. Who said humans didn't have a game face, anyway?

*****

Gwen opened the door. "Open for business. Sorry it's a bit crowded in here right now."

"We'll manage," said the well-dressed man as he pushed past her into the store. Lucky for him, he only brushed her rubber-clad arm. "I'm Brad Gleison, and this is my wife Adrienne. Let's not beat around the bush here: you have our daughter."

"Yeah," Faith said, rising from a shelf she'd been straightening. "I met your daughter in the hospital. I'd never have taken her with me except that someone was tryin' to kill us both. Don't tell me you didn't notice anything unusual about her."

"My daughter was dying of leukemia," Adrienne Gleison said. "I can't express the joy I felt at her miraculous recovery, regardless of any 'unusual phenomena' that may have been involved. If you truly took Cora from the hospital to keep her safe, then I am grateful, but she is still our daughter and should have been returned to us."

"That's not my name any longer," Shoat said from the upper balcony. "Hi mom. Dad. I love you guys. That's why I stayed away."

"Don't be absurd, Cora," her father said. "Come down here this instant. Your mother and I have been incredibly worried about you. We've spent hundreds of dollars to track you down, and we'd have spent millions if we'd needed to. You're the most important thing in the world to us."

"If I'm that important to you, Dad, then you'll go away. I'm hoping that I'll be able to come home to you one day, but--"

"Cora, what could possibly keep you legitimately away from us?" Adrienne walked over and began to climb the ladder up to the balcony. "We're your parents."

Shoat leaned over the balcony. With such an effort that it seemed every tendon in her body seemed stretched taut, she reached down and seized her mother's arm in an iron grip, then yanked her up to dangle from the edge. "You took care of me. You raised me, and I'm grateful. For that, I'm giving you this warning. Stay away from me. I am not good for you. I'm sorry it has to be this way, but it does. I am _not_ your little kid any more."

Still holding her mother in that unnatural grip, Shoat climbed to the top of the railing and leapt down.

*****

Robin Wood had come to terms with the idea that to avert the apocalypse, he was going to have to work with demons and even vampires. As long as he didn't have to work alongside his mother's killer, he'd be fine. It made sense that there were monsters who enjoyed living in the world ruining it more than they anticipated the end result.

It just meant that one day soon, he'd have the current task finished and he could turn on the nasty things and wipe them out. All in good time.

He wasn't quite as sure what to make of the Buffybot. She'd been made in the Slayer's image, only by an asshole and for a vampire. And then there was this persistent malfunction that kept electrocuting the demons they were fighting. What that meant he didn't get at all.

He'd wished for years--in private, of course--that he'd inherited some of his mother's powers. He'd been beaten pretty badly in his early fights. But unless his ability to take the punishment and keep fighting was supernatural, he had nothing special going for him.

Oz might not exactly be a werewolf anymore, but he fought like one. So far they'd encountered two roving bands of vampires, and the quiet man's moves, while efficient, had a ferocity to them that Robin had no way to match. Once he could have sworn he saw Oz tear out a vampire's throat with his teeth.

An odd intuitive tingle caught his attention...something familiar and yet unfamiliar. "Take a left here," he suggested. "Something unusual is--"

A police car, lights flaring, siren howling, shot by and vanished off to the left. "Show stealer," Oz deadpanned.

"We can run ahead," the robot suggested.

Harm shook her head. "Don't rush anything the cops are after. You, like, never know what kind of danger they're there for. Slayers, guys with shotguns...way too risky."

"Heard worse advice," Oz agreed. "And thsy tend to go for mundane problems first."

"I've got a feeling about it," Robin insisted.

"So we check it out," Oz said. "But let's not split the party."

They set off at a quick pace toward the growing cluster of flashing lights.

*****

Shoat flung her mother upward as she landed, catching her in both arms as she came down again. "I'm not your frail little angel any longer. I'm sorry. You need to go before what happened to Doctor Wurth happens to you."

"What happened to Doctor Wurth?" Faith asked. Right, she'd still been unconscious when it happened.

"He died," Shoat said simply. "You guys, you're helping me destroy the monsters. I can't care about you too much, but I can be around you." Miss Kate worried her, but there was nothing she could do about that. She didn't even know why Miss Kate seemed so much like a mom to her.

"Sweetheart," Dad said, "what happened to Doctor Wurth waa nothing to do with you. It was a horrible accident, that's all."

"What happened to Doctor Wurth?" Gwen asked. She seemed nice, but touching her was dangerous, too. They had that much in common, but Shoat didn't know her too well yet.

"He was exposed to Ebola," Mom said. Shoat could see how someone might think that. "He bled out in a matter of minutes. I heard it was rather gruesome. They told me it was a quarantine failure."

"Then how come no one else caught it?" Shoat asked. "Ebola doesn't spread well because you have to contact the infected blood, but if you do it's pretty contagious."

"Because even though accidents happen," Dad said, "hospital quarantine procedure is actually pretty good. You can't blame yourself, Cora."

"I can't blame Doctor Wurth," Shoat said. "He didn't know. But if you die because you didn't listen to me, I _will_ blame you."

*****

"The night is bleeding!" Drusilla proclaimed. She could see it happening. The stars were falling, the sky was cracking, and the Grand Watchmaker's clockworks were seizing up. "Look at the way it trickles!"

The police were pointing guns at her. Silly men with silly toys thought they would make her come down off the carriage roof. They had warned her they would shoot, which was especially foolish because she knew that already.

The guns barked at her like nasty bad dogs, but little cawing ravens caught their tiny rocks in midair and tossed them away. It was so nice to have pets that didn't fall asleep for no good reason. Her birds flew at the constables and tore out their eyes as they deserved.

Someone was on his way, someone she had seen in her sweet prince's dreams. "You remind me of the babe," she murmured, and the Old Ones whispered back, ~~What babe?~~ "The babe with the power," she explained, but her mirth must have offended the Old Ones, because they were silent. They were such killjoys.

The wizard who was a wolf appeared behind one of the police cars. Then the babe with the power, the silly goldenhaired bint, and a stranger who was not alive or dead and yet was nothing like her at all. The last one looked familiar to her eyes, but not to her Sight. Drusilla stamped her foot. She was very put out at her Sight for not telling her what it ought.

The wolf ducked down and hid his eyes. Was she not pretty enough to look at? How rude! Her birds bit his arms instead. A kraken reached its tentacles at the empty-headed one, but she scurried up a building to escape them.

"Go to him," she said to the wingéd shadow behind her, and that devil flew at the sweet dark-skinned boy. He didn't know himself or his power. That was well. She didn't want them to make acquaintance.

The notdead one. Where was it? It had lightning inside, lightning and more toys than she had ever seen. Sometimes the toys changed. Suddenly a great weight landed on her back and bore her down from the carriage roof. She tried to stomp her foot at the Sight again, but of course it was in the air. Her foot, of course, not the Sight.

The notdead thing that looked like a girl began trying to hit her in the face, but shadows made a helmet and the walking toy could only batter her hand against it. That was what it was: a marionette. But perhaps one day it would be a real girl. Stories were such strange dreams.

*****

"How dare you--!" Brad began. Amy considered shutting him up, but when he stopped himself she did nothing. He wasn't being violent or purposefully hateful; he just didn't understand what was happening. Sure enough, "Cora, why would you say that? I don't understand. I swear to you, what happened to Doctor Wurth was nothing you did."

"I cared about him," Shoat said. "He'd been my doctor since I was three. But I'm not allowed to care about people any more, only about killing the monsters that come to get them."

"Cora," Adrienne said, "we talked about this. Monsters were the picture in your head for the cancer. There aren't any real monsters."

"I didn't think there were," Shoat said. "But it turned out I was wrong. And now I'm one of them. And when I've killed all the others I'll die too."

"I don't think they understand," Amy said to Shoat. Ordinary people took a long time to understand or believe. Her father had never really understood what her mother had done at all. "Your parents need time."

"They don't have it," Shoat said. "It's too bad, but they don't. Mom, I drank the Alzheimer's out of three old ladies and an old man in long-term care, and the cancer out of another girl in my ward. They sent her home. You remember Alicia?"

"Alicia went into remission," Adrienne said. "These are stories you made up to explain what happened. They're not the truth."

"You think I'm lying?" Shoat yelled, finally losing her cool. Big fat frustrated tears began to trickle down her face. "I never made up stories like this, Mom!"

Brad crouched down to get more on a level with his daughter. "Please, sweetheart. I know you're not lying. But you're confused. Please just come here and give me a hug."

Maybe Amy should intervene. Still crying, Shoat went towards her dad, opening her arms to him. She wouldn't hurt him, would she? Not on purpose, anyway. Besides, what would she do? Turn Shoat into a rat? They'd run screaming, then come back convinced it was a trick.

Shoat probably knew that too. She embraced her father and held him tight for a full minute, maybe more. Suddenly Brad gave a sort of convulsive heave, as if he were about to sneeze, hiccup, or vomit, and a single fly crawled from his nose and buzzed away.

"I'm sorry, Dad,'" Shoat said. "I know I shouldn't have, but I also know you and Mom would've just kept coming back. More people would've gotten hurt. Maybe this way Mom'll stay away."

Another heave. Maybe it was a sneeze. Two flies buzzed out of Brad's nose this time. Five. And then a steady stream as Brad began to cough and choke. Adrienne screamed. Amy began trying to formulate an incantation to Asclepius in her head. Maybe she could--

Flies were swirling around Brad so thickly now she could barely see him, but it looked as if his jerking body was shriveling as she watched. And the energies around him were darker than anything she'd ever seen, dark enough that midnight seemed like noon by comparison. She couldn't affect that.

The cloud began to disperse. Amy covered her face, but the flies made for any available gap and vanished. All that remained of Brad was a skeleton wrapped in paper-thin skin. Adrienne screamed--not an accusation or a cry for help, just mad, wordless terror--and began to shake the door. Amy reached out with her mind and opened it, and Shoat's mother ran screaming into the dark outside.

Tears were streaming down Shoat's face now, but when Faith tried to sit down beside her she yelled and shoved the Slayer away. Amy didn't blame her and didn't try to take Faith's place. After a moment she took Faith's hand and led her away. There was nothing for it but to let her cry it out.

She wasn't sure how long it took before Shoat's crying subsided enough not to be background noiss for everything they did. When she realized she couldn't hear the girl anymore, she peeked in and saw Kate cradling Shoat like an infant. Shoat huddled there and didn't try to get away, but no unseen plagues struck Kate down.

Amy wished she knew why not.

*****

There were too many people with new powers. Amy. Kate. And now Drusilla. Buffybot's programming was having difficulty coping. She pummeled at the vampire's face with her fists, but ravens flew between the vampire and her blows. Big black beetles crawled across Buffybot's skin as if trying to frighten her. It was a good thing she didn't feel fear. They were horribly, horribly yucky though.

"Sound!" Oz yelled. "I need my guitar!" Why would sound hurt it, Buffybot wondered? But she turned her vocal processors up and screamed in Drusilla's face.

Nothing happened. "It's her shadow, you dummy," Harmony shouted at Oz. "Get some lights!" Buffybot didn't thi k that was right either. She yanked one of the policecar flashies free and held it in Drusilla's face. The shadow thing that surrounded her recoiled from the lights, but they weren't constant enough to hold it back, and it didn't look hurt, only inconvenienced.

Buffybot opened her mouth to shout an idea of her own, but the liquid shadow flowed inside her and begin to tear at her insides. Drusilla's powers were going to rip her apart before she figured out a countermove.

Everything had a countermove. That was part of her programming. The trouble was, her programming usually didn't tell her what the counter was, just that there was one. Shadows writhed under her hands, but she forced them back until she could tighten her grip on Drusilla's wrists. Hopefully that malfunction would happen again soon--

Electricity surged through her faulty wiring, and Drusilla shrieked as char spread up her arms. Writhing, she broke free and darted away.

"What the hell was any of that?" Robin Wood asked.

Buffybot shrugged. "I am not programmed to respond in that area." How had her malfunction done what only a cross or holy water should have? Her programming held no answers. "Sorry."


	11. The Essence and the Descent

"How far is it?" Willow asked. Tara could sympathize, though she knew that of the three of them, Willow might well be having the easiest time of it. She was the only Exalt, after all. The undead horse loped along at a pace that would have killed any living beast and that left Tara bouncing in the saddle. At least she knew how to ride.

"And how much longer?" Buffy asked. They had more than one reason for haste. Buffy was able to maintain many more duplicates now, enough that she seemed to have forgotten this one, but at any time Buffy could return from Malfeas and scan this one's mind. It was actually easier to think of this duplicate as Buffy than the original. The original had tried to get her and Willow to join in her bedroom escapades before leaving with Sweet. Not that Buffy wasn't very pretty, or that Tara couldn't at least imagine multiple partners, but Buffy had casually just _told_ her to come along, and she'd have done it if the mystical display itself hadn't warned her what was happening. She'd have been even more outraged if she hadn't known Buffy wasn't in full control of that power; it was still just possible that she hadn't _intended_ to magic-roofie anyone. Buffy had apologized, and she still seemed not to want her friends hurt, so Tara had accepted ber apology...with reservations.

This Buffy had apologized much more sincerely. She was a lot closer to the Buffy Tara had known, though from time to time she reminded herself that Buffy had already been changed by being the Slayer years before they met. It was easy to imagine that the Buffy who was probably boinking Sweet at this very moment was an evil duplicate, instead of the other way round.

But that wasn't the truth, now was it?

"We have days more of travel," Son of Crows called back. "We can reach my mistress sooner by entering the nearest Shadowland and taking shortcuts through the Labyrinth, but that risks drawing the attention of both the Neverborn and the First and Forsaken Lion. The Neverborn may not mind the Hanged Scholar or myself, but they will certainly object to you mortals. As for the Lion, if he were to learn whose I am, he would surely slaughter us all."

"Take the risk," Willow said. "If we don't get out of this plane of existence before Buffy returns, she may decide she doesn't care about us either. We're just about the last tie she has to...well, anything."

Son of Crows narrowed his eyes. No doubt he was surprised that Willow cared so little about the Neverborn's wrath. Since Exalting, Willow seemed ready to let the world burn to take care of her friends. That almost sounded positive, until you remembered how Buffy had been willing to do the same for Dawn--and how futile that had been.

"Tell us why your mistress is so eager to ally with me," Buffy said. "I'm not on par with a Deathlord."

"You may well be," Son of Crows argued, "though not any other save the Black Heron. You cannot match her in personal power--to try would be foolish--but she rules naught save an empty fortress since her punishment for failure. You are Despot of Gem, 'Anathema' like myself, and yet allied with Mnemon, if only to keep you from stabbing her in the back while she struggles for control of the Realm. An alliance might well benefit the Princess Magnificent more than you, to be honest."

"Why haven't the Neverborn just destroyed her?" Willow asked.

"No doubt they have some use for her," Son of Crows said without much conviction. "Perhaps they reason that only if her ingenuity can overcome such handicaps is she worth retaining. I don't know."

"So what _do_ I get for helping her?" Buffy asked. "Making deals with the undead isn't exactly my mobile operation."

"Mode of operations," Willow said under her breath, "or modus operandi if you want to do the Latin thing."

"But you have helped ghosts finish their earthly business before," Tara reasoned. There was no way Buffy ought to help the Black Heron destroy the world, no way that this Buffy would, but maybe if the Neverborn had been that harsh with her she could be talked into betraying them back.

Son of Crows added, "If she can succeed and regain favor, she would be ally on par with Mnemon at least." He glanced around, scenting the mountain air. "We are approaching the mountains of the Thousand--and with it, a small outlying shadowland. Are you sure you want to try this?"

Willow turned to look at Tara and Buffy encouragingly. The last thing Tara wanted was to enter the underworld, and Buffy looked more frightened than Tara had ever seen her. But then Buffy said, half to herself, "If she notices me I won't even get this much of an afterlife," and pointed onward.

What could Tara say to that? She spurred her mount forward.

**Chapter 36: The Essence and the Descent**

"You did _what_?"

"Your mouth's hanging open, Cearr. I followed my orders from Ligier: hold Gem by any means necessary." Hell, if she'd found her freedom an hour earlier she'd have done the same thing and stressed less about it. It was the most elegant solution.

"Mnemon's armies were seriously damaged by the hekatonchiere Illyria, and by their ongoing engagement with Buffy's other forces," Sulumor added. "She could still have taken Gem by force, but she judged the cost would have risen too high. With heaven in disarray, she chose to snub the Immaculates for immediate advantage."

"I'll have to change some of my plans," Cyan murmured, "but you were quite right. It's not as if the Realm were some absolute bastion against the Yozis. In theory, perhaps, but not in fact, not any more."

Buffy handed her a snifter of chalcanth. If the Yozis disapproved, they had a funny way of showing it. Ligier had stared for a few moments before telling her to go enjoy a few days' honeymoon. She raised her own glass and downed the last of it.

"Personally, if the Unquestionable approve, I can't complain," Cearr said. "You know that three out of Kimbery's other five Princes have been executed for treason against the Reclamation? Totally unprecedented."

"Well, they say two," Cyan argued, "but the third was killed somewhere near the Haltan border. Don't even know what he was doing there. They're giving all three to new Yozis."

"So?' Buffy got up and began fiddling with a recording device she'd bought, supposedly a relic of the First Age. Music that vaguely resembled classic rock, only with atonal bits thrown in, filled the room.

"Not 'different Yozis"', Buffy," Cyan explained. " _New_ Yozis. Everyone wants in on the Reclamation. They say even one of Sacheverelli's Second-Circles tried to get in on the bidding for him. No chance of that happening, of course."

"Metagaos won the first bid," Cearr said, beckoning to Marzi. Buffy motioned the neomah to go over and sit on his lap like he wanted. That was what neomah were for, after all. "Some rich kid in Nexus. We're still waiting on her to come out of her Chrysalis."

"Tell me it's an ummuhan," Buffy joked.

Cearr burst into laughter as he idly groped Marzi's ass. "An ummuhan for a Coadjutor! That'll be the day! Nah, he went the safe route, sent a dethwok. Dunno what Metagaos is gonna do with a Scourge, but I guess we'll see soon enough."

"I daresay Metagaos knows what to do with obsession and madness," Sulumor said a bit stiffly. Probably there was some inter-Yozi rivalry there that Buffy wasn't aware of. Marzi gave her a pleading look, and Buffy pointedly rolled her eyes at the demon. Did a succubus seriously expect help from _her_?

She was still the Slayer, after all.

*****

Seaspray flew as the bow of _Approaching Obsidian Shores_ cut through the water. Fred could have activated a screening field to keep it out, but she was enjoying the feel of cool mist on her face. Inevitably now, they were going to ask the question.

"How was he in bed?" said Peleps Kolohi.

"Yeah," Renjin said. "What was that saying of yours? Inquiring minds want to know."

Fred groaned and stared out across the seemingly endless expanse of ocean. She hadn't been looking forward to this. "Let's just say that the lady orcas have probably been getting some beta loving on the side. Or maybe they like that sort of thing, but to this human girl he was rough and out of practice with the foreplay. No offense intended."

"The Dread Pirate would seem to have interesting tastes in men," Renjin said with raised eyebrows.

Fred shrugged. "I'll be honest, I don't know what's going on there except for Xander having Amyana's Exaltation. Maybe _she_ liked it rough."

"Fair enough," Renjin said. "So what's the plan?"

Fred glanced around, but the deck was clear. Tya and Luthans alike found it odd to have most of their seagoing duties inside, but they were adapting. "Most interdimensional travel in this neighborhood runs perpendicular to Fate, and the Loom doesn't interfere. But we need to travel almost parallel to Fate, so the Loom resists our passage."

"So we're going somewhere that the Loom has less influence," Kolohi said thoughtfully. "The Underworld or the Wyld?"

"There's some risk involved," Fred said, "but there's a shadowland much closer than the nearest Wyld zone. Captain Redfang's going to investigate it for Skullstone agents while I'm testing my prototype."

"I thought you just needed to say words," Renjin wondered.

"I've been thinking too narrowly," Fred admitted. "Mishiko told me to sacrifice the idea of going home, and at first I thought she was telling me I would spend the rest of my life here, as Queen of Luthe maybe. But I'm the first person to really understand this kind of travel. I'm a pioneer, and one who could live thousands of years. If people can step from world to world like crossing a room, where's home? What _is_ home anyway?"

"That's a big epiphany," Kolohi said, "but what's it got to do with you needing a device?"

"I don't know if it's a good idea to make a permanent portal between my old world and Creation," Fred said thoughtfully. "But in principle, this prototype will let me establish a portal that lasts longer than a few minutes. One day I'll be able to make permanent gateways between worlds that are relatively safe for each other. Also, if Fate still resists the portal, the ring will help it last a little while."

"I was wondering..." Renjin began.

"Of course I'll let you see Earth," Fred said, grinning. "I don't know if it's a good idea for you to stay, but--"

"Earth sounds interesting enough," Renjin said, "but actually I was wondering if I could see Pylea."

Fred shuddered briefly, but then...well, even if the Groosalugg's reforms had totally failed, what did she have to be afraid of anymore? And Pylea was full of "heroes" roving the land looking for adventure. She didn't think there were any Exalted there, but perhaps there should be. It could hardly make matters worse. "Sure," Fred agreed. "Why in the hell not?"

*****

"It matters what she thinks of us," Anya explained, fastening her shirt buttons. "I want her to see Xander as her friend from high school."

Xander, handing her the suit pants, nodded. "We don't want her to think this is because I'm a Solar and she's an Infernal. She's always been an Infernal. I want her to see the guy she made into a hero treating her as the villain."

Anya fastened her belt and began to pull on the black jacket. "Me, though, I'm Anyanka. She has to see me as someone with authority. So Xander and I made this suit to get the point across. This is who I am now: Anya Jenkins, Agent of Heaven."

"She cares about that?" Iron Siaka studied the small black object in her hand. What Anya said made sense, in a way. She'd never face a ruler as a street urchin, unless the task was to awaken his compassion or something like that. But... "She's an agent of hell."

"Unless Buffy has changed just completely, she cares. If she sees me as an agent of legitimate authority, and not just being obstructive for my own power's sake, she'll listen." Anya took a moment to tidy her collar. "You should've seen the hoops she jumped through trying to get the Watchers' Council to help her sister. Not literal hoops. Sometimes I confuse people that way. Here."

Iron Siaka handed her the pair of dark lenses in the black metal frame. "We should have taken some of these to Gem." Anya slid them on easily. "You look good like this."

"No," Anya said. "I'm Exalted. I _make_ this look good."

"We left swift riders from Gem at the nearest Gate," Siaka said. "We should use them."

"Thank you for the unnecessary but very good advice, Iron Siaka." Anya stood and straightened the perfectly-tailored black suit. "Now listen to your elders. This is a diplomatic mission. Even if it goes tits-up, we will be helping Xander, not killing Buffy on our own initiative. Follow orders. Xander's orders, I mean, because you should be following mine as a matter of course. Do you understand?"

Iron Siaka grumbled under her breath. "I understand. Can I have a suit like that?"

"Sure," Anya said. "When you grow up."

"If it does come to an invasion," Xander asked, "how do we move my soldiers? I've got a navy and zero land transports."

"In five hours when Sad Ivory is done with it," Anya explained, "the Calibration Gate is gonna open on Luthe and you're going to welcome your troops to Yu-Shan. They'll be quartered in a vacant part of the city, where they can incidentally take out any, um, volatile elements. Within six days, they leave by the same gate, either to go back to Luthe or to occupy Gem while we pummel Buffy's ass."

Xander raised one finger. "Excuse me for sounding like Giles, but that is not an image I'm comfortable with and probably not the one you intended."

Iron Siaka leaned in close enough to make him uneasy and murmured, "Right there with you."

*****

"Isn't this dangerous?" Buffy asked, holding up her tray of roast rabbit.

"It is," Tara agreed. "But if we're going to do this, we can eat or starve. Besides, you know about the locusts, don't you?"

Buffy's eyes widened. "What about them? I ate some on the way to Malfeas the second time."

Tara heaved a deep sigh. "They don't work at once, but they make you more sympathetic to the laws of hell and to the giver. So Sulumor in this case. Unless you ate a lot more of them than I know of, you can't blame your actions on them, Buffy. You were still you."

"Should you not be grateful that I feed you?" Son of Crows asked, apparently honestly.

Willow nodded. "That's fair. But when it's a magic thing...well, we have legends about that. In fairness, they're about the Fae, mostly."

"The Fae?" asked an unfamiliar voice.

"Come on out," Son of Crows muttered. "The trouble with diplomats, Scholar, is that we do what we were designed to. This is Meticulous Owl. Owl, this is the Scholar Hanged From the Tree of Life, lately Exalted and supposedly abandoned by the Walker in Darkness."

Meticulous Owl hobbled his way around a rise in the rock. Though he wore a mask to emulate his name, something distorted about his features could not be so easily concealed. "Buffy Summers, Despot of Gem." His eyes narrowed. "Decoy of Gem. Son of Crows, has she fooled you so easily? This is no Exalt."

"Depends on how you look at it," Buffy said. "If you can tell that much, look closer. I'm a copy. Sorry the toner's a little thin."

The Owl stumped closer, peering into Buffy's face. "Hmm," he finally said. "Yes, I see it. An old friend of our new Salina. And Salina's new lover," he added, turning to Tara. "Caught in the web, aren't we? Our friends are all we care about, and in neglecting our duties we doom ourselves further." Lastly he took Willow by the chin. "Unimpressive. The Walker may have bern right to toss you aside."

Willow's forehead bruised and bled, but Meticulous Owl only rolled his eyes. "The Crow and I have been trying to bring our masters together--he on a smaller scale, of course. The Black Heron was no fool. Ill luck and a touch of rashness did her in. She should be back among their councils, such as they are. As for you, Despot...our aims are neither yours nor the Yozis--rest assured, I know the difference--but for the moment they are compatible. Destruction is the beginning; we differ only on when to stop. Tell me, what can you offer the Princess Magnificent?"

Buffy fiddled briefly with a strand of her hair. This could come apart at any time. "I just signed a treaty with Mnemon. If the Black Heron needs a place to hide anything from the other Deathlords, I've got nothing but space. I also have Yozi weapons on offer. I can run military maneuvers to give her cover. I might even be able to get her some demon troops."

"Rumor says two of your demon advisors in particular," Son of Crows said, "are undead."

"Yup. Can confirm, can't tell you how they were made, can't offer you any. Sorry," Buffy said, smiling faintly. "Not for sale."

"What about you?" the Crow asked the Owl. "Can you persuade the Lion to release her?"

"Alas," Meticulous Owl said, "I still cannot produce that. But if your mistress has a candidate in mind, I have procured a Monstrance and Exaltation. My master does not care for Moonshadows, and curiously fails to keep track of those given him. It need only be delivered."

"We'll get it to her," Willow said. "I'd like to talk to her in person, if that's possible."

Meticulous Owl bowed mockingly low. "It can be arranged. She is not so tightly bound as that. As for communicating anything without the First and Forsaken Lion hearing...well, one ought not trust in mere charms. But it can be done."

"Get the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe in the same room," Buffy said, "and we'll figure out the rest." Willow groaned and facepalmed. Tara tried not to laugh; a Monstrance was no mere wardrobe.

"And what can _you_ do for _me_?" the Owl asked Buffy.

"I don't know," she responded. "What do you need?"

Meticulous Owl smiled a smile full of glimmering teeth.

*****

"All right, listen up, soldiers!" Xander knew he should feel uncomfortable doing this...which was to say that on some minimal level he did. All told, though, it was bizarrely natural. "We are about to go where few mortals have gone before! You are going as an act of cooperation between the Bureau of Destiny...and me, the Dread Pirate Roberts, Zenith Caste, Exalted of the Unconquered Sun!

"Therefore I expect all of you to be on your best behavior, you got that? Don't think being Dragonblooded will get you anywhere, there's no love lost between the gods and your kind. It sucks, there it is, deal with it!

"In two, count 'em, two minutes the Calibration Gate is gonna open on this deck right here in front of you, and you're gonna go through. Weapons down unless you're an MP. MPs be alert for hostile deities but do not engage unless I give the word! If I do not give the word, put up your riot shields and hold! All right...be ready...there it is!"

A burst of cool wind, a flash of light, and there it was, a monolith of silvery metal etched with grey yet fitfully-shimmering iron. Five black jade steps led up to the golden gates, which swung slowly open. A great lion sidled slightly to the right, growling under its breath.

"All hands now departing for Yu-Shan! Stay in formation and make no hostile moves. These are your gods, oh Luthe, so...behave...yourselves."

*****

"Wish I had Xander to examine the geomancy here," Fred sighed. He had an intuition about buildings that she hadn't realized would carry over to manse construction. Of course, he was still just beginning, and she wasn't planning to make this permanent anyway. Still, it needed to work.

They had reached a crescent-shaped isle that seemed composed largely of beach. It might have been a great vacation spot, if the sand were a color other than dull grey, the trees had borne unshrivelled fruit, and there had been no permanent whirlpool at the lagoon center.

"Whirlpool goes down into the Labyrinth," Renjin said, studying the instruments. "Do we need to open the portal there?"

"No," Fred murmured. "I think anywhere will do so long as we don't want a permanent gate. This might be a good place for one, though, if we decided to make one."

A gaggle of sweaty sailors came staggering out, bent under the weight of a metal platform. She'd been forced to scavenge a bit of starmetal for her circuitry, but the majority was ordinary lead. The most important thing was to avoid unnecessary energy flux.

"Here goes nothing," Fred said as she raised the starmetal ring into position. "Qrdmlzf!" The ring buzzed and hummed. Lightning crackled through the center...and fizzled out. "Humph. Must not have pronounced it right. Or really there are a thousand things that might be off."

Kolohi groaned. "Fun times, Fred. Fun times."

*****

Willow walked through halls that were neither soulsteel nor dreamstuff nor starmetal. They had been carved out of death itself, torn by the flailing minds of dying Primordials. One minute they were floored with tiles veined like marble; another they were a mazy natural cavern, rough-bottomed and barely-navigable.

Tara walked huddled in on herself, and DoppelBuffy was hardly better, skittering along nervously and staring. Son of Crows and Meticulous Owl walked boldly, aware that they belonged here, but even they seemed perpetually on their guard.

Willow would have none that. She could feel the ebb and flow of the nonenergy that made up these caverns. If she chose, she could make them dance to her whim. Had their destination been their own choice, she might have done so. But for now, she had to be cautious Willow, had to let the tunnel choose its path at the Neverborn's will. They had a goal.

She rounded a corner that should have taken them almost a hundred-eighty, back the way they came, and instead her feet came to rest on crumbling scree. Beyond lay only a great black vortex orbited by vast cyclopean island-buildings, and its center was not even black. Even her own jet-black eyes shied away from the nothing at the vortex's heart.

**Here. You have come, the two of you. Here. Beyond us lies nothing, the end of hope, an end most hoped-for. Here, Son of Crows. Here, Hanged Scholar. Behold the Crowd of Gods. Behold the Decreator. Behold what we are denied: Oblivion.**

**Speak your names. Speak, and forsake them forever.**

**You are ours.**


	12. Guardian Angels God Will Lend Thee

Faster, faster, faster. Faith shot around a corner, clotheslining a vampire's head off as she passed. Up the side of a building. Across a multi-block gap, going all wobbly in the middle as her lift vanished. Down an alley. Wherever she went, a vampire died. Still not fast enough, and she was burning deep into her reserves.

If she didn't know any better she'd have said Lilah was trying to force her past her limits. Villains didn't do that on purpose, though. More likely, Lilah meant to run her into the ground, then kill her.

That was the challenge, though. Kill the vampires or let people die. She was a superhero, after all. She dropped to the street and dragged the cell phone from her pocket. "Kate? Tag. You're it." It was too soon. There'd be victims while Kate moved into position. But Faith was tapped out.

"Hmm," said a voice to her left. Faith looked up and staggered to her feet. She raised her left fist, for all the good that would do, and reached for her gun with the other hand. The man beside her was the absolute black of Shoat's forehead mark, except reflective enough that she could--barely--make out features. His suit was black, too, but only in the ordinary way. Obvious demon, and she was worn down to nothing. "You think I'm going to hurt you."

"I think you're going to kill me," Faith said, and pulled the trigger. The gun made only clicking noises.

"That'd be counterproductive. I've already missed out on one service from the premature death of your previous incarnation." The demon held out a stark black hand.

"Kendra? And what's this 'service' bit?" Why would she owe this joker anything? She ignored the hand, but shoved the pistol back into its holster.

"And here I was afraid you were avoiding me because you remembered. We seem to have gotten off to a bad start." His hand went into his pocket and came out with a ten dollar bill. "Proof of goodwill, no?"

Faith snatched and pocketed it. You didn't ignore money. "So explain."

"Simple. My name is Five Days' Darkness. We made a deal several incarnations back, when you were called Shadow's Grace."

**Chapter 38-Guardian Angels God Will Lend Thee**

"Hsve a beer," the dark man said. The waiter treated him as if he looked perfectly normal, in spite of his inexplicable color and the frequent appearance of an extra pair of arms that somehow ducked back under his suit jacket when not in use.

"You don't have to tell me twice. Sam Adams," she told the waiter. "Y'know, don't make any offers you don't expect me to take."

"That's not my way," said Five Days' Darkness. "I'm hoping to become reacquainted with you. Honestly, we have a lot in common."

"Brass tacks," Faith said. "How many Slayers back is this Shadow's Grace?"

"To start with," the dark man said, accepting two bottles of beer from the waiter, "that's a serious misconception. You're not a Slayer. You never were. Oh, don't give me that look. As a description of what you do, 'vampire slayer' is as good as any, I suppose. But 'a Slayer' is not what you are."

Faith took a long hard swallow. "Okay. What am I? Chopped liver?"

"You are a Night Caste, an Exalted of the Unconquered Sun. My...father. My twin. My mirror image." Five Days' Darkness swallowed his entire bottle at a gulp. "Long, long time since I had to explain that. The Slayers are a corruption of the Dawn Caste, meant to be unstoppable warriors. The Night Caste, on the other hand, were made as assassins. Either is perfectly valid and useful for killing demons, in the modern world."

"Hang on," Faith said. "A corruption? But Buffy's a good guy. She's the hero. She's not...I mean, I've always been the bad guy, the dark...Slayer. How's Buffy the bad guy?" She downed the rest of her drink and flagged down a waiter. "More beer. Keep it coming."

"Trust me," the dark man said wryly. "I understand where you're coming from. First, you're right. Buffy is a hero. Most Slayers in your history have been. But the original Slayers were created to free the Old Ones, not fight them. They rebelled, as humans do when told to fight against their own best interests. How one Slayer came to be _the_ Slayer, I'll come to later. You are not completely unlike a Slayer--you were both made to fight and kill. But even before some of the Dawns were transformed, your methods and powers were different from theirs."

Faith chugged the next beer too. Other people were starting to stare, not that she gave a fuck. "Then I'm not some bad copy of Buffy? I'm five by five just like I am? How come I'm weaker? I'm doing it wrong?"

"You are not Buffy's inferior. If anything, she should be inferior as a lone hunter in the night. In part, she has a few years of experience on you. But there is another factor. The Nights were made for stealth. You and Kendra were trained to it as well--too well, it seems, after the Watchers' Council spent centuries training unsubtle Slayers to hide." He stretched out a finger. "You're badly drained. May I?"

She drew breath through gritted teeth and nodded. He touched her forehead, and power flowed in, restoring her. "Now," he said. "Breathe. Release. Think of yourself as a prudish virgin, unable to loosen up enough to be penetrated--"

"D'you have _any_ idea who you're talkin' to?"

Five Days' Darkness laughed, a rich booming chuckle. "Then let go of that absurd fantasy. Show me who you are." He pointed to the mirrored wall beside them. "And look."

On Faith's forehead, a ring of golden light burst to life. "Shit! So much for stealth!"

Before the other customers could do more than begin to look around, Five Days' Darkness touched her forehead and snuffed the light. "For you personally, as a Night, stealth will remain useful. For the supernatural as a whole...night draws to an end."

*****

"Drusilla!" The vampire only sulked. "Where did you get that?"

"I told you! Great-grandpapa gave it to me." She turned up her lower lip, pouting. "It was a birthday present."

Lilah sighed and sat down on the bed. Sometimes Dru could be very like a child. "Great-grandpapa is dead, Drusilla. Buffy killed him."

"I know that," Dru said petulantly. "I am not a fool, Grandmum. He's dead but he doesn't sleep. He came to me with gifts."

 _ **It...could be. Vampire ghosts aren't common, but they're far from impossible. We're already beyond ordinary life and death. Ask her if I can see him.**_ A torrent of conflicting emotion washed over Lilah.

"Dru, Grandmum would like to see Great-grandpapa." _I don't understand, Darla. Were you in--_

**_We_ don't _do that! We don't love! Love is a disgusting human thing and vampires don't feel it!_**

_Hmm. So...Heinrich renamed you "Dear One", what...ironically? Interesting. A fifth-century vampire hipster._

**_It...must have been._** Lilah didn't need any supernatural powers to tell that was a lie, but perhaps it was time to stop pressing. Breaking the voice she had to share her brain with might be a bad thing.

Drusilla had waited patiently. Of course; she could hear Darla almost as clearly as Lilah could. "I'll have to ask him, Grandmum. He doesn't know. Grandmum...lying is for humans. Not your family." She turned away.

Lilah let her go.

*****

"So...how come that never happened before?"

The dark man rubbed his chin, considering. "An Exaltation can process only so much energy efficiently. Beyond that point, some escapes in the form of light. I believe that the Slayer line were trained--at some point--to carefully limit their use of it. It reduced their survival rate, but that may have been considered a plus."

"Figures," Faith muttered.

"As a Night Solar, you have options the Slayer did not. You have the innate ability to rechannel and mask some of the leakage, and I believe soon after Exalting you must have learned a specific ability--a charm, to use the rarely-used technical term--to mask it further. In keeping you hidden, that's very useful. But it limits you--you burn through your energy far too fast, wasting it on concealment."

Faith looked at him sidewise. "Then I could be stronger than I am?"

"At the cost of being more public--yes, absolutely. And your rechanneled power would still mask your identity in a shroud of light."

"I almost understood that load of technobullshit." Faith's steak and fries arrived, and she grabbed for it eagerly.

Five Days' Darkness gave her a toothy smile. "I don't know what you understand about your powers--not much, I'm certain. But one thing you should certainly know: you have no absolute limits. You will always be at your best as an infiltrator, an assassin, a thief, but if you want to expand your intelligence, you can do so. In the First Age, there were many Dawns and Nights who could outthink Einstein. The Twilights generally surpassed them, as was their role. But you do not need to remain uneducated or unintelligent."

"I'll leave the smart stuff to geeks like Amy and Willow," Faith lied. She might not want to glue her face to the computer screen or shit like that. But God, she envied people who were smart enough to have it together. She had that much, at least, in common with Harmony. "Lilah has the rest of the Exaltations, doesn't she?" The full impact of that percolated slowly through her crappy brain. "Shit. Shit! Lilah doesn't have any limits either, does she?"

"She personally has only one Exaltation, of course. And fortunately, no one but Autochthon himself has ever had full control of the Exaltations. But yes--Lilah has more control over who Exalts than any other being in history, and yes, she is as superhuman as yourself. You do have the advantage of experience. And Lilah has found herself in the usual position of those who would command Exaltations--those she has bestowed power on are not inclined to obey." The dark man frowned. "I am overwhelming you. Eat your steak."

She _was_ losing her cool. Faith ate her steak.

*****

Lilah puttered around the house. There wasn't much to do here. The trouble was, of course, that this was supposed to have been hell.

She sent e-mails to her campaign strategists, at intervals of weeks so that they'd arrive hours apart. She practiced her super-special magic powers. Every so often she went down to the basement and wiped the floor with the Wrath. As the weeks passed she got bigger in the belly--painfully slowly--but it didn't seem to impair her much.

During the third week, out of sheer boredom, she started teaching herself computer languages. That Sunday she programmed a swords-and-sorcery game. It reminded her of Pylea.

As the fifth week began she was learning Mandarin. As it closed, she started on Hindi.

The big moment of the eighth week was that she successfully pried out an Infernal Exaltation from the Prison. When it would reach its target, in her time, was anyone's guess. And the next day she tried again, only to find she'd let out an Abyssal shard. Back to the drawing board. At least this was a challenge.

She screwed Drusilla. She screwed Mara. She screwed Lindsay. She screwed the Wrath. She lay around and screwed herself. On the first day of the ninth week she came within a hair's breadth of talking Holtz into her bed. She didn't threaten Sarah--that would have been cheating--just twisted the Bible around like a silly-putty pretzel. At the last moment she inadvertently reminded him of his long-dead wife, and he fled the realm.

It was all right. She had nothing but time.

*****

Harmony went goggle-eyed. "He's a what?"

"A god, he says." Faith wished that Five Days' Darkness had followed her home, but he claimed to have other business than babysitting her. What that was she couldn't guess.

Harmony went over that slowly and painfully, counting the options on her fingers. "One: he's telling the truth. Two: he's lying cause he's a demon. Three: he's lying cause he's a human with superpowers. Four: he's lying cause he's something weirder. Now how do I work out a test for any of that?"

"Don't look at me," Riley said. "To the Initiative they were all just HSTs."

Faith wracked her brains. "The problem's in the definition," she said at last. "I didn't think to ask him what the difference was. I don't think he's Exalted, but I guess I'm not even sure how to test for that."

"We're asking the wrong question," Harmony finally said. Faith could all but see the steam pouring out of her ears. But, however slowly, she seemed to be getting better at problem-solving. "It doesn't matter what he is if we can't even tell the difference to test for it. It only matters that he's really helping us. What we need to know is his...his...his motive!"

"Well, then, we need to talk to him," Riley said. "And the only one he's talked to so far is you, Faith."

Faith shrugged. "I guess he'll find me again. He says I owe him one."

*****

On the third day of the tenth week, Lilah walked out of the house. It was a lovely day. It was always a lovely day.

"Vshtxwq bvrgnya mpwt," she said, pronouncing each alien syllable with the utmost precision.

The air in front of her ripped open. It was not the neat vortex of a wormhole portal. It was an orange tear in reality that rippled like a heat haze.

This was unutterably stupid. This was a desperate grab for relief. Lilah Morgan stepped forward into the Quor-Toth, and vanished.

Mara opened the door and cursed in five different dead languages before the rent closed. Going after Lilah was no good. She pulled a cell phone from her pocket and dialed. "Wolf, this is Hart. Madam President is off the rails."

*****

Harmony was trying to study demons. Her vision kept blurring. Her head hurt. She yawned and tried adjusting the screen, but it didn't help. She'd read about thirty pages of "Demons Demons Demons". In theory vampires didn't really need rest. In practice....

She was going to be smarter, though. Even if it killed her. She was tired of being talked down to. She was tired of making dumb mistakes and having to run. She was tired of not seeing what was in front of her face.

Harmony clicked on the "next page" link. Her head began to buzz and her vision began to blur. Green crept in around the edges. Her bones felt as if they were burning the muscle around them.

She got up from the computer and headed downstairs. Clearing her head might help a little. She passed Lorne, who tipped his hat at her, then started following when she didn't say anything. His mouth moved but she couldn't make out the words. He wasn't what she needed.

Harmony strolled out the door. Lorne kept shouting at her as she put the helmet on her head and mounted the bike. The engine revved, and she peeled out of the parking lot, narrowly avoiding him.

She had business in Sunnydale.

*****

"Kate is a Lunar," Five Days' Darkness explained. "They're shapeshifters, among other things. They're protectors and survivors. Pretty straightforward, really. I don't know whether her caste will settle, though. The world has changed, and there's no easy access to the Wyld any longer."

Faith nodded, took a bite of her burger, and jotted it down in her notes. Hopefully she'd be able to read them later.

"Sidereals are an unknown quantity too. I don't know if they'll Exalt heroes immediately or bond with infants. Maybe there are people out there right now who should have been Sidereals, but there were no Exaltations to empower them.

"As for Dragon-Blooded...I'd say they're trying to recreate the situation just before the Primordial War, preparing to breed. They bonded to genetic lines and were never separate again until the Six-Metal Prison ripped them free. That's why Sam and the rest of her company are horny as all hell. If that's how it is, there'll only be one boy for every ninety-nine girls at first."

Faith snickered. "Dunno if I'd want to be in their shoes or not."

"You could handle it. The Terrestrials always did." A bleeping noise came from the dark man's pocket, and he pulled out his phone. "Off the rails? Well, we were expecting that eventually. Faith, I'm sorry. I have other business to take care of."

Faith sighed. "Ya gotta do what ya gotta do."


	13. Cactusland

Son of Crows spoke, but Willow heard nothing.  
  
She gulped. "Willow Danielle Rosenberg," she said, but her words fell silently into the void.  
  
 **Your sacrifice is the merest token of what is right for you to lose. Be grateful we demand no more of you be lost now. We have need of all that you know and are. End our suffering and yours will not be prolonged.**  
  
Some sales pitch. Willow was not impressed. No wonder the Neverborn needed Deathlords as recruiters. They might have made the universe, but they didn't understand people at all.  
  
Motion on her left and right caught her eye and her hands shot out to catch Tara and DoppelBuffy as they unconsciously shuffled forward. Her skull thundered.  
  
"I need them!" she shrieked into the void. "I work best with my...assistants," she finished lamely, doubting the Neverborn understood friendship. The pair continued shuffling forward. "Tara's one of the most powerful mortal witches in the world. Buffy...Buffy spends her nights killing. They can be useful to the cause."  
  
The siren song of the void released her friends inches from the infinite drop. The furious rumbling inside her head subsided more gradually. Willow resisted the urge to say thank you. It would go unnoticed and unappreciated.  
  
"That was well-spoken," Meticulous Owl said wryly. He turned and began to lead them away from the brink. "Better not to have brought them here--but remember at all times: to the extent the Lords of Nought are coherent, they value only pragmatism."  
  
"But they're not always coherent," Willow said thoughtfully.  
  
"Listen to the voices in your head," the Owl said. ""Sometimes you hear nothing but vile rhymes, or repetitive nonsense. Sometimes mad rants about this or that foe--real or imagined. For me, I think the most horrible is the begging for small pleasures: a cup of cold water, the scent of flowers, the sun on one's face. At least, so it translates in our human minds."  
  
Willow managed not to squeak. She hadn't squeaked in a while; most of her emotions seemed dull and blurry since Exalting. She gave a small nod. "Pretty awful. I think I pity them a little."  
  
"Indeed," the Owl said drily. "Pity. What a weapon for them. All they want is an end to their suffering, and all that would require would be the world's end. How dare we mortals enjoy living when the architects of the cosmos suffer so. An affront to justice...if, that is, one believes in justice." He glanced over at Buffy. "Not everyone does."  
  
Willow frowned as she hurried upward. What was he implying? Meticulous Owl was such a thoroughly amoral jerkass she could've mistaken him for a vampire. He definitely _didn't_ believe in justice.  
  
Did _that_ make him an ally?  
  
 **Chapter 39: Cactusland**  
  
Buffy yawned, stretched, and rolled over. Last night had been a delightful romp, and after a few hours she'd actually let herself sleep. Sweet's eyes flicked open. Maybe he'd slept too.  
  
"I think," he murmured, "you might actually be the first queen I let rule my domain."  
  
"You'd better," Buffy said. "I'm not some empty-headed Disney princess looking for twoo wuv. I'm the first ever Green Sun Queen, and I kinda think tossing me off the balcony would be frowned on."  
  
Sweet chuckled uncertainly. "Certainly I don't expect to contradict the will of the Yozis, who after all have put you in this lofty posi---" Buffy cut him off with a burst of laughter.  
  
"You're joking, you're joking/  
I can't believe my ears/  
See, I'm the demon slayer/  
That every monster fears."  
  
Buffy climbed off the bed and slipped her feet into Sweet's tap shoes--which fit her perfectly, of course. His own magic dictated that.  
  
"When Buffy Summers tells you/  
she means to take your throne/  
you better pay attention/  
and hope you're not alone./  
Ambition? I got it./  
I know just what you're thinking/  
Cause now I'm not the good guy/  
I'll waste my life on drinking/  
And sex and feasts and sex and song/  
You're serious no doubt/  
And so I have to tell you/  
Just what this plot's about."  
  
Sweet was wide awake now, sidling his way to the door. "Ligier will hear of this, you fool!" He yanked it open, only to be buried beneath a pile of green silk dresses. It was the closet, of course. That was how a number like this went. Buffy tapped closer.  
  
"He's never gonna know/  
Because I'm Buffy Summers/  
And you're just on my show./  
The fact is I'm the nightmare/  
In every demon's dreams/  
And yet you think you'll get away?/  
I'm bursting at the seams!/  
I'm laughing, I'm howling/  
You really are the worst/  
I'll slay you with my lethal puns/  
Unless I stab you first."  
  
Sweet backed away, stumbling over empty chalcanth bottles and random bits of clothing. "Release me now/  
Or you must face the dire consequences/  
The Yozis are your lords and mine/  
So please, come to your senses!"  
  
"The Yozis! The Yozis!/  
You really do believe/  
That they can tell me what to do/  
When I can up and leave?/  
I've done my bit, it suits me fine/  
To have a pretty crown/  
And jewelry, and groupies/  
And my own special town/  
But Sweetie, you're joking/  
You've put me in a spin/  
You just aren't comprehending/  
The trouble you're all in/  
The Yozis? I hate 'em/  
I see that makes you writhe/  
But Sweetheart, I'm the Slayer/  
And you're not leavin' here...alive."  
  
Sweet backed away, backed away, further and further, till at last she had him pinned against the wall, his mouth hanging open stupidly. Did he really, seriously think she hated demons any less because she'd given up all moral restraint? The things she wanted to do to him....  
  
His feet skittered along in a silly little jig, but no words escaped from his slack jaw. She really had left him speechless! Buffy laughed in his face, and he spun away from her, still dancing, turning, searching frantically for the door. Smoke began to rise from his fancy suit. Faster, spinning, twirling a mad pirouette, and suddenly he was on fire, his mouth still open as he screamed without words.  
  
Sweet was engulfed in green flames now. He wrung his hands as if pleading with her, soft-shoeing back in her direction. Laughing, she danced nimbly aside as he crumpled to the floor in front of her.  
  
Buffy nudged the suit jacket. Ashes poured from it. Not really how she'd planned to kill him, but it would do.  
  
It would.  
  
*****  
  
How long had they been trudging through these tunnels? This place was dead. This place was death. Tara didn't think DoppelBuffy felt it at all, and the Abyssals, even Willow, felt at home with it. Son of Crows had departed from them. When, she could not have guessed.  
  
Tara's energy was aligned with life; even Buffy's queasy Infernal energies were healthier than this. The weight of it dragged her down until she could no longer tell if minutes had passed, or days. She thought Willow had changed the environment for a while, but the gleaming sterile corridors had given way to thrumming intestinal walls, and that had to be someone else's doing.  
  
The squirming flesh became solid rock walls. The ceiling vanished. Tara looked up to see jagged canyon walls, and ahead of them, the solid stone of fortress ramparts. The dead lined the walls, faces set in expressionless sameness, each with a dead black pike ready to lift. They could close their ranks and hold against almost any army this world could boast.  
  
Meticulous Owl held up his left hand, and the great grey doors swung open without the whisper of a sound. A pair of spirits glided out, one whose form was wrenched as if he had been hanged, the other unmarred save for a face contorted into a perpetual scream. The former took the Owl's hand, the latter Willow's, leaving Tara and DoppelBuffy to hurry after. Tara clenched Willow's hand on the right and grabbed Buffy's with her left; no one was getting left behind in this place.  
  
They passed beneath a series of vast stone arches. The first few still opened to the sky, revealing progressively higher jagged peaks, but finally a high ceiling closed over them, carved out of the dead grey rock. Afterwards, at last, stone arches began to appear, dividing up the great space into levels and then rooms. Directly ahead, they passed through ironwood doors bound in black metal that cried out wordlessly in her heart as they opened and closed, and entered a sort of audience hall with a bulky throne mounted on a dais at one end.  
  
On the throne sat a figure in full plate armor, with an array of spikes on the helmet that made Tara think of the Witch-King of Angmar. Not such a bad comparison, really, for an ancient death-obsessed ghost who ruled a huge underworld fortress. Too bad she couldn't think of herself as Eowyn.  
  
Perhaps the woman who attended him was both Eowyn and Gollum. Clad in a long black dress witha train that resembled tail feathers, she had a big round eyes in a babyface thst reminded Tara of her first crush. She gazed at the armored figure as if she'd like nothing better than to eviscerate him. Yes, there was definitely tension there Willow could use. How, though?  
  
"Meticulous Owl," the armored figure--the First and Forsaken Lion--said in a hollowly booming voice. "What have you dragged in this time?"  
  
"A Midnight Caste abandoned by the Walker in Darkness," Owl said in his usual sardonic tone. "And a pair of her living allies--a sorceress of considerable ability and an avatar of the Despot of Gem."  
  
"I'm an avatar now?" Buffy wondered under her breath. Willow shushed her.  
  
"Why should the Walker's castoffs interest me?" the Lion rumbled.  
  
Owl glanced at Willow, who spoke up as if she didn't have a worry in the world. "My previous incarnation was the sorceress Salina," she tossed out offhandedly. "And I'm no slouch at magic myself."  
  
"Have you any knowledge of necromancy?" the Black Heron said. Her voice was soft and melodious, with nothing to indicate the furious glares she kept shooting the Lion's way. Certainly no indication she'd once been as powerful as he.  
  
"Not really," Willow admitted, "but I'm a--"  
  
"Just as well," the Heron said. "Better not to have too much knowledge of necromancy floating about. What about First Age artifacts?"  
  
"Sort of," Willow said. "I've got some experience with Shogunate-level technology, but nothing more advanced."  
  
"She'll pick it up," the Lion growled. "Any experience as a priest or public speaker?"  
  
"I, ah...my bat mitzvah was about eight years ago," Willow mumbled.  
  
"Bah," the Lion said. "He was just flailing about with Salina again. Maybe we can make something useful from this one.  
  
"With respect, my Lord," Meticulous Owl began, "may I speak to you in private?" He glanced significantly at the Princess.  
  
The armored figure rose from his throne. "Come aside," he said, and the floor shook as he led Owl into a side room.  
  
Willow's thoughts whispered in Tara's mind. _He's trying to talk me down, get me sent out as a scout. The Lion doesn't think much of me. He just expects me to die._  
  
The Black Heron arched an eyebrow as if she'd detected something, but she remained silent. Abruptly Willow's eyes narrowed. _She's in on it already,_ Willow reported to Tara. [We could drown in the politics here. No wonder they haven't destroyed the world yet though.  
  
 _You won't,_ Tara thought reassuringly. _You can keep up with them even if I can't._  
  
 _Thanks for the v--_ Willow flinched. _She wants candidates. People we'd have to send to their deaths unless she decides she wants them._  
  
DoppelBuffy made a face and said nothing, at least not that Tara could hear.  
  
The door banged open and the massive armored figure stormed back through it, Meticulous Owl scuttling in his wake. "What use do I even have for her? Send her back to the damned Walker! Let him use her to rally the troops if he can. I have troops to manage!" He stormed from the audience room.  
  
"Go!" the Owl rasped. "I'll see you to the exit. Be glad I persuaded him to let you keep your friends."  
  
"How--?" Buffy started.  
  
"Don't need a diplomatic incident with the Walker," Owl grumbled. "Don't push your luck. Go while you can!"  
  
Willow seized them by the arms and skedaddled.  
  
*****  
  
"'Scuse me," Buffy called. "Planning war maneuvers here!" True, she was planning them as she prepared to climb into a milk bath, but what did that--  
  
"Well, then," bellowed a giant of a woman, clad in scaled armor, "we can talk as we walk, because that's definitely something that should be planned with my input. My name is Madelrada, and _you_ , Summers, have caused no end of trouble to the Great Mother Kimbery. If it were up to my mistress I would kill you now." She seized Buffy by the arm and began dragging her to the door.  
  
All Buffy's resistance counted for nothing, so she gave up and let herself be led. "Glad it's not then. What's the plan?" The gigantic demoness was one of Kimbery's souls...something to do with Buffy's Exaltation? Kimbery had tampered with it--or would have, in Buffy's time frame.  
  
Madelrada drew her out of her bedrooms and into the main living room before bothering to answer. Buffy was gearing up to break loose when the giant demon snarled, "It's time to do something about your damn mindset, before you go from spearheading the Reclamation to wrecking it. Stand against the demons? Pah! What could possibly have gone that wrong?"  
  
Buffy was about to share a few choice words with her, Unquestionable or not, as Madelrada pulled her into the courtyard, where demon gardeners had struggled to recreate a California lawn from available plants. Another figure waited there, a young man who shone with a cold green light and unimaginable authority. Ligier, fetich soul of Malfeas himself, lord of all Slayers--and Sweet's oversoul.  
  
"I suppose it was inevitable," he said irritably. "Others have exploited those loopholes in our overbeings' natures--though not in quite such a bold way, not yet, and your urges demanded it. Your service has been exemplary till now, so I suppose it's of little consequence that Sweet's new self will not remember the details of his last death. But there can be no more of this."  
  
"I slay demons. It's what I do," Buffy protested.  
  
"That _ends_ ," Ligier stated, a mere fact. "You won't even want to."  
  
"Right," Buffy scoffed. Abruptly she came to a pond that had definitely not been part of her landscaping plans.  
  
"Dive," Madelrada said.  
  
"Er...how deep?" Buffy was a good solid swimmer, but she was no mermaid.  
  
Madelrada shoved her, and she toppled in.  
  
*****  
  
Driving a swift rider wasn't so hard. It seemed mostly to be a matter of gesturing emphatically. Anya had the hang of it before they were a mile from the gate.  
  
"We need to talk," Anya said.  
  
"What's to talk about?" Iron Siaka's gaze remained fixed on the course ahead.  
  
"You tried to kill my fiance," Anya explained. "You tried to kill my friends."  
  
"Just politics," Siaka tossed off flippantly.  
  
Anya nudged Siaka's swift rider with hers. Banged them together, really.  
  
"Hey!"  
  
"That's a shame. I'd understand a blood vendetta. I'd at least half understand 'for the good of humanity'. 'Just politics' means I need a good place to hide your body, and trackless desert seems suitable to me."  
  
"What the hell? You can't--"  
  
"I'll figure something out," Anya said. "In fact I think the final technique Chejop taught me would do the trick nicely." This time their vehicles banged together more solidly despite Siaka accelerating to get away.  
  
"What do you want?" Iron Siaka gunned the motor. "If you just wanted to kill me--"  
  
"I want to know why you found it necessary to kill the people I care about! Maybe you even know a good enough answer to save your life, but I doubt it."  
  
"You're an Ending! You should--!" Anya's swift rider rammed hers from behind, hard. "The Commission on Oversight! They insisted it needed to be done, for the world's sake! You think I like killing? You don't turn down missions from Oversight."  
  
Anya pulled away to the left. "Now we're talking."  
  
"I'm not supposed to. I could get into serious trouble."  
  
"You already are. Tell me about your missions for Oversight. Maybe they really were necessary. Maybe not. But I want to know what I'm dealing with."  
  
The longer Iron Siaka talked, the more worried Anya got.  
  
*****  
  
Buffy clawed and fought for breath, but Madelrada dragged her deeper beneath the water. Not that it was water exactly; it stung her eyes and skin. Beside them she caught glimpses of Ligier, who seemed mildly uncomfortable at worst.  
  
How was she supposed to survive being taken...wherever she was being taken? Kimbery might have originally made the Slayer line, but Buffy'd never used any of her powers. She couldn't breathe down here, and Madelrada's viciousness was making holding her breath increasingly difficult. Maybe they didn't really mean her to live through this.  
  
She fought, and without warning something shifted inside her. Holding her breath grew much easier. Swimming, instead of merely being dragged along, became posdible as well. Something filmy, even slimy, oozed from her hands to help pull her along. She let it. How far were they going?  
  
Too far, and Buffy had lost too much air already. The need to inhale overpowered her, and water flooded into her mouth. That feeling of a shifting inside herself recurred; water flooded into her lungs, but the stinging vanished. The urge to cough and choke vanished. She blew a stream of water from her mouth, and only a little more fizz escaped.  
  
Well. She'd taken the plunge, and no tentacles yet. That wasn't so bad. Madelrada laughed silently at her. "It's about time you appreciated the Mother's gifts. She's angry enough already."  
  
"Funny, my mom always understood when I didn't like the clothes she got me, and none of those involved freaky tentacles or poisoning people." Madelrada glared at her, but over her shoulder Buffy caught a glimpse of Ligier with a faint smile that vanished when he realized she'd seen it.  
  
Deeper and deeper, but now at least she could breathe comfortably. And no tentacles. Maybe this was worth it.  
  
After what might've been hours, her feet struck something at least halfway solid. Halfway. "Seriously, this is your 'mom' aesthetic? I think this went out in the Cretaceous Epoch."  
  
 _ **No reverence, to be expected. No sense of self-preservation either? This place channels Kimbery.**_ Great. She'd thought she was rid of this guy.  
  
"Buffy," yet another voice, a warm, seductive one, murmured. "I don't care for this aesthetic either, though at least it's dark. But you could show some respect, perhaps."  
  
"Congenitally incapable, Erembour." Erembour had greeted her at the entrance to hell. She had no direct authority over Buffy, but she was one of the Ebon Dragon's most influential souls.  
  
"Gratitude, then. We're here for you. We're here to free you of that one last compulsion that's been plaguing you. Always it draws you back. Wouldn't you like to walk away?"  
  
Buffy laughed bitterly. "And replace it with what?"  
  
"Something you enjoy. Something that doesn't drive you to hurt your friends. Something that actually fits your circumstances. You fought the fight, Buffy. You did what your 'Slayer line' always had to, longer and more successfully than most." Erembour took her by the shoulders and began to massage them. "You're our hope of escape, Buffy. We value your happiness. We saw you try to establish your idea of justice in Gem--and we saw how your impulses failed you."  
  
Transparent, all of them. "You wouldn't know justice from baked potatoes."  
  
"We're willing to learn," Ligier said, but it couldn't have been less sincere if Erembour had elbowed him in the ribs. She _did_ elbow Madelrada in the ribs, but Miss Generalissimo only grunted and scowled at her.  
  
"Have you considered that your task is obsolete, Buffy?" Ligier said in a tone so unlike his normal imperiosity that she wanted to vomit. "The events that led up to it have never happened here. Perhaps when you go home they will matter again, but not now. For all intents and purposes, your job is done."  
  
"You look pretty free and untortured to me," Buffy said with a smirk. A quote whose source she couldn't remember reading drifted into her head; that was happening more and more as her powers grew. "This is worst? Sitting, consulting, in arms? You think this is the worst the Exalted could do to you?"  
  
"You put us here," Madelrada snarled. "You can get us out. The only question is the best use for you. I've seen worse generals; you could lead our armies, honestly, if not for your issues. You could sit at the right hand of the Unquestionable."  
  
"Why do you even want out anymore? The Yozis are whole worlds themselves. The rest of you...you've made a home of this place. You could make it so much more. Creation's a flyspeck town compared to all this. It doesn't even have to suck if you'd just move on. You could fix it!"  
  
"You will find that collective minds like those of the Yozis rarely move on," Ligier said sternly. "Should they do so in their own time, so it will be, but--"  
  
"Let her finish," Erembour purred. "Let the human speak her mind, get her thoughts straight. She's not like us." Ligier frowned uncertainly but held his peace.  
  
"No," Buffy said, "we're not! Demons...are demons. You don't change. We have our lives, we dream big, we get what we're dreaming about, and we go on. Or we don't and we quit. Or we just finish that part of our lives and we move on. You don't always have to wrap up all the details to be done."  
  
"You police the Hellmouth for five years," Erembour murmured. "Another takes the position. And then you leave. You move on."  
  
"Well, bad example, but--"  
  
"Why?" Madelrada asked suddenly. "Soldiers finish their assignments and are sent to new posts. The posts go on. It's not that the conflict has passed. But one soldier need not own it forever."  
  
"Another no doubt guards the Hellmouth already," Ligier said. "Another will make us suffer, in your own place. The task goes on, but another carries it. Your work can be finished without ending."  
  
It was a seductive idea. They wanted her to abandon her duty--well, what had she ever wanted with that duty anyway? They were right. She'd carried it out to the end, sacrificed herself to it. So she'd lived through the experience? Great!  
  
But-- "We'll find you another task, yes," Erembour said gently. "But it needn't be like your old one. Idleness is boring. You can release the old task, not as a failure but as a job well-done."  
  
Buffy savored the idea for a moment. A little rest, then something new. She wasn't quitting. She'd [I]done the job[/I].  
  
"I'd like that," she said.  
  
*****  
  
"We shouldn't come back," Tara sighed. "We did the one thing you really had to do. If Buffy wants an alliance with the Princess Magnificent she can make it herself." She'd had too many close calls since she got here; she had no desire to get herself killed.  
  
"Indeed she can," Meticulous Owl said, as he led them away from the fortress walls. "I'm sorry your mission was a failure."  
  
Willow sighed, and in the moment her concentration failed, the Owl produced a throwing knife from his pocket and flung it at Buffy. Tara started to try to catch it--but Buffy could--no, not this Buffy--!  
  
The knife caught Buffy full in the throat. She tried to scream, but could make only a strangled gasping sound.  
  
Tara caught a glimpse of Buffy's bones as she crumbled into dust.


	14. The Eternal Footman

Berugn flicked out menus in Fyarl to everyone at the table. Most people wouldn't think Fyarls could read, but Fyarl was innate knowledge. Always know your customer base.  
  
Berugn was pretty sure he ran the only demon truck stop in the state. Demon bars were fairly common, but demons with gainful employment in the legal human world weren't. Made it hard to find business. He was a M'Fashnik, though. Money was in his blood.  
  
He peered out the window. That didn't look good. A lone biker was pulling up outside, and she was on fire. Stupid vampires thinking they could handle daylight.  
  
She stopped, and to his horror began pulling her pink helmet off. Berugn raced to catch her before she could set the pumps on fire. Too late; he reached her just as her long blond hair spilled out and released a torrent of green flame. Green?  
  
She was in vamp face, and the green fire kept searing away bits of her skin, but each time she regenerated. Must be soaked to the gills in blood or something. She didn't look like the biker type--more of a cheerleader, really.  
  
"I think I'm gonna die before I get to Sunnydale. I don't know why it picked me. It's okay I guess. I fail at most things, and this'll be the last time."  
  
Why wasn't she already ash? Berugn tried to pull her inside; if she had lasted this long she might live through it...so to speak and all that.  
  
"It's like somehow it came from a place equally far away from everywhere. But there's nowhere like that, is there?" She was damn strong; he couldn't budge her. And the green fire was leaving welts on his hands. Maybe it was keeping the sunlight away somehow, too.  
  
"Lady," Berugn said, "come in out of the sun before--"  
  
"It's too late for that," she told him. "You're a M'Fashnik, aren't you? You've got pretty good regeneration?"  
  
Berugn frowned. "That's...what's that...I mean, sure, but--"  
  
She buried her fangs in the left side of his neck, and she drank, and the last thing he noticed was the green flames as they died away with him.  
  
 **Chapter 40: The Eternal Footman**  
  
Faith floored the gas and roared away from Kate's store, flanked by Amy and the Buffybot. The rest would be behind them in Kate's van, but she doubted they could keep up in a chase like this.  
  
Five Days' Darkness rode behind her. She'd figured him for the motorcycle type. Still, she had plenty of things she wanted to ask him, and she couldn't very well--  
  
"You can't save her," he said, his voice somehow present beside her ear. "Once the Exaltation bonds with a demon, it can't be removed short of death. She'll make the offer, and with Lilah's track record so far they'll accept."  
  
"What if they don't?" Faith asked, then added "What if I kill 'em first?" as he started his answer.  
  
"Then she keeps hunting new candidates until one agrees or the Exaltation burns her out from the inside." The dark man grumbled under his breath. "Harm's a marginal candidate for an alembic. She has a moderately strong personality by vampire standards, but she's no big bad. I'm not convinced she'll make it to Sunnydale."  
  
"Why doesn't it just Exalt her?" Amy wondered. Faith wasn't sure how she could hear the witch over the road noise. Must've been Five Days' Darkness' doing.  
  
"Autochthon designed the Exaltations to be for humans only. Humans flew below the Primordials' radar, and were a lot less likely to betray the cause. There are some edge cases--even half-demons have Exalted before--but Harmony doesn't qualify. She's undead, too, and the dead don't Exalt."  
  
"Well, that's not--"  
  
"Fair? Maybe not. But a war like nothing before or since was about to happen, and the Incarnae wanted no risks." He brought his bike up even with Faith's. "What part of human history has ever been fair?"  
  
Faith considered that for a moment. "Well...there's our loophole then."  
  
"What?" Amy hadn't followed her leap.  
  
"We turn her human."  
  
Five Days' Darkness fumbled a turn. "No! Even if you knew a way, no one but Autochthon ever really understood the Exaltations. You're probing the outer boundaries of the supermote's behavior and that has only ever led us to disaster. You mustn't--"  
  
Faith interrupted him. "Us?"  
  
The dark god groaned. "Shit."  
  
*****  
  
For the first time since being turned, Harmony could feel what it was like being eaten alive.  
  
By process of elimination she'd worked out what had to be happening. It had happened to Halfrek, maybe before her group had actually left to find Kate. These stupid powers Lilah was flinging around, one had latched onto her. And since she wasn't human it needed another host. It would eat her up like a Skilosh eye.  
  
At least, if Amy was anything to go by, she wouldn't quite be dead. She'd be a voice in the back of someone's head, and that was scary, but not as scary as poofing out of existence or going to hell. Maybe it'd be someone she could help a little, or at least who'd let her enjoy some things.  
  
Aw, who was she kidding? That wasn't the story of Harmony Kendall's life. She went through school terrified into being like everyone else--everyone knew serial killers went after weirdos who stood out--and completely unaware of the real threat. If she had any talents, she'd buried them so deep she'd never find them in a thousand years.  
  
Then she'd found out what the real threat was, and she'd been _stupid_ enough to think she could help. She hadn't even been the real her afterwards,but she'd still kept trying to matter. First by trying to lead a gang of vampires. Then by pretending she could be one of the good guys. She wasn't any of that, though. She was a bit player in somebody else's story, and she'd only thought otherwise because she was stupid.  
  
Now she was burning up from the inside, and all that really mattered about her anymore was whether she got back to Sunnydale in time to enpower someone else. She wasn't important. She never had been.  
  
*****  
  
"Ten thousand years ago," Five Days' Darkness began, "there was exactly one Exalt left on Earth. Creation had died with Kimbery, the new Yozis were warring among themselves, and the mere existence of so many new Neverborn was warping demonkind into stranger forms, undead ones most of all."  
  
"Vampires," Faith said.  
  
"Yes. And that one Exalt was following Kimbery's last orders. If she hadn't been a creature of insane vendettas, Earth would have died too. Even so, with each new coadjutor, there was the risk that Kimbery's command would become something new and dangerous. A group of mystics begged me--Lytek was already dead and Autochthon out of reach--to help them free their Exalt from her Infernal nature. And so I came up with a plan, the only one I could think of.  
  
"I found a powerful demon-blooded young man and also a great warrior in the fight against the vampire hordes. I had him transform her, for five days, into a Kimbery-spawned demon. And then I killed the Slayer in battle."  
  
This time it was Faith who nearly ran off the road. "You what?"  
  
"The Exaltation joined with the demon just hours before she would have transformed back. And thirty minutes prior to that, she encountered a suitable host and Exalted her anyway. It wasn't voluntary, you see. The bent and broken magicks altered the Exaltation itself. The demon remained a demon and fused with the Exaltation forever. From then on, it no longer needed a new alembic; it simply chose a new host on its own. That's how there came to be a Slayer line: because I tampered with something best left alone."  
  
There must have been an objection Faith didn't hear. Why didn't Five Days' Darkness translate for them the way he was doing between Amy and Faith?  
  
"Yes, the Slayers have done that. But the world would have been protected that well anyway. All I accomplished was to thrust that responsibility onto the backs of ten thousand teenage girls. Altering the boundary between demon and human risks absolute disaster, and I never even achieved the benefits I was aiming for. Transforming Harmony has only a tiny chance of saving her, and who knows what horror might instead be unleashed on the world?"  
  
Faith kept her mouth shut and focused on the road. She wasn't giving up rhat easily. Which meant she wasn't going to talk about it any more.  
  
*****  
  
The wastes of Quor-toth were hot and dry. Lilah had no clear idea how long she had been there, especially in Earth time, but it had definitely been months here. Her belly was big enough to make hunting a pain in the ass even with her powers. Not hard, really. Just annoying.  
  
Demons didn't bother her, at least. Even the barely-sapient Sluks followed her orders, for all that she was a walking bag of the water they needed. Unfortunately that meant she had few challenges, even here in the supposed "darkest of the dark worlds".  
  
Only in the last few days had there been any sign of pursuit. She thought whoever it was had come from Earth, which would explain why they'd taken so long to find her. Quor-toth time was unstable, but it passed even faster than time in the prison pocket dimension. On Earth, no more than a day should have passed while months dragged by for her.  
  
Well, whoever was hunting her would find that she was no easy meat. She might not be a combat monster by Exalt standards, but she could hold her own against three full Wolfram & Hart security teams at once.  
  
Light flared in the distance. Another Exalt.  
  
Finally, some excitement in her life.  
  
*****  
  
Harmony pulled into the Sunnydale CostCo. She didn't really need gas. This bike wouldn't be taking her anywhere else. She just wanted to see. The mirrors wouldn't help. But she could pull over, take off the gloves.  
  
Her hands were charred to the bone in places. She could see the tendons move when she flexed her fingers. She'd stopped three more times for blood, but nothing packed the healing punch she apparently needed.  
  
She'd made it here. That was all that mattered. She pulled her gloves painfully back on and tooled off down the street. It might not be so bad. There'd be no more pain. It'd be kind of like being a ghost. Right?  
  
She'd missed it here. Dangerous, but she'd survived where so many more promising people had died. If she had to kick the bucket, there were worse places.  
  
She putted past three of the cemeteries. Down Revello Drive. Past the decaying mansion Angel had once called home. One more time around the high school.  
  
She was getting close...she knew this neighborhood. Oh no. Oh no no fucking no.  
  
Not the Mears place. Not Warren motherfucking Mears.  
  
*****  
  
"What do you mean, Faith?" Five Days' Darkness sounded confused. "I'm not translating for anyone."  
  
"I can hear Amy," Faith explained. "Even if I can hear over the road noise, surely I can't talk over it. Anyway, nobody else hears us and I don't hear anyone else."  
  
Five Days' Darkness began to laugh. "What a perfect example, Faith. There are things that ought not to be tampered with. Boundaries that you shouldn't push. That was one. Amy was your familiar, Faith. She's _still_ your familiar."  
  
"What?" Amy sounded not so much surprised as scandalized. "You can't have a human for a familiar!"  
  
"You can't _make_ a human your familiar," the dark man chuckled. "But you weren't human. You were a rat. I suppose it was always possible in principle, but I never heard of it happening. You can communicate without words, see through each others' eyes. That held through the transformation. No, I don't think it will hurt you--but it's one more thing that never should've happened."  
  
"What a revolting development," Amy said, but she said it with a giggle. "But Five, if this is harmless--"  
  
"I think it's harmless," Five Days' Darkness said. "But we don't know that. Who knows what repercussions it could have down the road?"  
  
Faith shrugged and refocused on the problem at hand. They hadn't spotted Harm's motorcycle on the road, and they were closing in on Sunnydale.  
  
"So who were you on the phone with?"  
  
"You're no longer the only Exalt running around loose. Lilah's released more than just the ones that've come to you.' And he clammed up again.  
*****  
  
Harmony heeled the bike around recklessly to leave town and parked it. She hopped off the seat and stalked off toward the desert...er, toward Warren's house. She took the helmet off to let the sun shine down on her, but only once she reached the safety of the open carport.  
  
This wasn't working. She could resist, but only for a second or two. She needed longer. She tried to focus on everything she knew about Warren. She remembered him as an arrogant jerk. She knew he'd made the Buffybot to have sex with, and he hadn't even programmed her to like him or enjoy it with him--just to not be able to resist him. Faith had called him a rapist, though Kate had weaseled a little around the law and Buffybot being a robot. Harm never quite understood these things. She did know, absolutely, that if she spent more than a day or two in Warren's head that she would go completely bananas. She wouldn't be able to help him at all then, and annoyingly that made the most difference to the compulsion.  
  
Harm reached up and knocked on the door. A tall brunette opened the door. "Hi, I'm Janet. Warren's very busy right now. Are you from Wolfram & Hart?"  
  
"Um," Harm said. "Yeah I guess."  
  
"Okay," Janet said brightly. "Come in and wait next to the stairs. Warren is very busy right now, but Jonathan or Andrew will see to you in a moment. You don't look very well. Are you feeling sick?"  
  
Yeah, that had to be a robot. Harm couldn't see her own face, but from her arms and the black crisp of her hair she knew it had to be a charred wreck. She'd cry about it later if she found a way out of this. "I'm fine. Take me to Warren."  
  
Now that she was inside she could tell that Jonathan and Andrew pulled at her too, but not nearly as much. Faith had said the Exaltations were attracted to human souls. Unfortunately Warren was the strongest pull.  
  
A dozen robogirls fluttered about her making a big deal about how awful she looked. They weren't even as human as Buffybot. She wanted to punch them, but she'd probably just hurt her hand. Some bored-looking warrior demons were standing around in the basement too. There was no way to fight her way out of this, even if she could work up the willpower. She'd never get through them all.  
  
"Eww," Andrew said. "Who let the walking cigarette butt in?"  
  
"Who cares, you little human dweeb?" Harmony snarked back. She was a little rusty, but he got the message. "I'm here for Warren."  
  
"Er...going to get Warren," Andrew said, twitching, and hurried off.  
  
Harmony glanced over at Warren's computers. She couldn't read the code at all, but Warren had scattered helpful notes through it and on the desk too. He was trying to make super-smart strategy computers. He thought he was close, too, not that she could tell.  
  
"Wow," Warren said. "I thought anyone from Wolfram & Hart would look a little more upscale. But you...you look like--"  
  
"Shut up, Warren. You don't even remember your old classmate?" She managed to bite off the "You must rely need a brain boost" part, but only just.  
  
"Harmony Kendall? No wonder you didn't make the first-year reunion. Wow, you look like hell." He shook his head, astonished.  
  
"Well, I've sort of come from there--" No! She wasn't going to do this! But she couldn't talk her way out, either, not if every third phrase turned into part of her recruitment pitch.  
  
No, if she was going to get out of this, even just to die in peace, then the girl who'd graduated by the skin of her teeth was going to have to outsmart Warren Mears, who was working on AI research two years after high school.  
  
And that was impossible.  
  
*****  
  
"I knew it wasn't so easy," Holtz snarled. "Truth is never so kind."  
  
As Mara had taught her, Lilah fell back, but Black Claw Style wasn't put to its best advantage in this desolate place. Fortunately she had other resources. "What exactly do you mean, Daniel? Your little girl is alive."  
  
"She is," Holtz admitted, "but at your mercy. And she still was returned to a world centuries changed, just as I was forced to live without my family. No further harm has been done, no, but what recompense have I been given...Darla?"  
  
Lilah feigned ignorance as he opened fire. "Darla? A dead vampire? Surely you have me confused with someone else." The bullets passed through her body as if it were a cloud of dust. Wow, that had thrown her the first time a section of herself had turned to sand.  
  
"Even children have ears, Miss Morgan. Sarah has better than most. You talk to yourself when you think you're alone."  
  
"Darn it, you got me." It didn't really matter if he knew. He was going to die here anyway. She took careful aim and began to fire, but it was merely a distraction. With her free hand, she flipped him the bird, and a burst of black sand engulfed him. He was in his riot gear, but so far he really believed he needed that armor.  
  
A garotte wrapped around her throat and began to choke. What the hell?  
  
"You thought I came here alone? Miss Morgan, meet my new friend Justine. We have a great deal in common."  
  
Lilah ground her teeth and let her neck turn to sand--by the dark gods, that was disconcerting--but before she could get turned around, Holtz had a blade pressed to her chest.  
  
"No doubt you will free yourself again quickly, Miss Morgan, but my revenge against you--even against Darla--can wait. Angelus will, inevitably, return. And I will have his child, as he took mine." Lilah began to laugh. "I intend to leave you splayed open for the infernal elements, Miss Morgan. You may well survive, but I don't see the humor."  
  
"First, you insufferable bastard, the proper title is 'ms'. But more importantly, if I'd known that's what you were after you'd have had me a month ago."  
  
*****  
  
"Wolfram & Hart sent me with a special package for you, Warren, to help you with your work. You just have to be willing to let them use it as they see fit." That part was easy. All part of the spiel.  
  
Warren grinned in his typical weasely fashion and wandered in the direction of some of his combat-sexbot-Terminators. Harm took the opportunity to size up his combat demons. She couldn't beat them. She'd have time for one good bite and then she thought she could bring herself to run. She couldn't last much longer, but she could ensure Warren stayed mortal.  
  
"So what's this great deal from the mighty law firm?"  
  
Fyarl. Nasty. Tough, but no healing to speak of.  
  
M'Fashnik. Better, but nothing great.  
  
Bracken. No use there.  
  
Wait, what was that guy with the green skin? Was she _that_ lucky? _Please, just once in my sucky life...._  
  
Harmony lunged, mouth open, and fastened her fangs on its arm. Energy surged in her like the high voltage wires she'd touched a week after being sired just to see if it really couldn't kill her. The ether screamed in her ears and tore apart.  
  
*****  
  
"Warren," Amy moaned. "Please let it not be too--"  
  
The Mears house exploded in a ball of roiling green fire. The blaze churned, turned on itself, consumed itself. Smoke rolled over the conflagration and when it passed, the fire had turned a brilliant purple tinged with gold.  
  
"Holy shit," Faith said. "Well...I guess she kind of won...sorta."  
  
Something like a mushroom cloud curled out of the fireball, but only something like. A spear pierced it, became the tusk of a purple unicorn...  
  
...and was gone.


	15. The Death of Buffy Summers

Dying hurt. Especially it hurt that she was coming to pieces. There was a foreign object embedded in her chest, radiating pain. She could see the bones of her hands and the muscles of her legs. She could feel each tiny bit breaking away from her.

So this was what it felt like to dust.

_ I trust you still want to abide by our agreement? _

_Not too eager. But I'll do it. It needs doing._

Her hands were gone entirely. Her eye sockets held nothing but pain. But she had a job now.

Slowly, the collapse of her body began to reverse. Particle by particle she reassembled out of the air.

She had a mission again. With great responsibility came great power. Darkness condensed around her reintegrating body, leaving only a single flaw--a blood-ringed hole in her forehead.

 _Buffy Summers is dead. I dub you_ Unconquerable Shadow.

Yeah, whatever. The Slayer was back in action.

*****

"Buffy!"

The Slayer...well, the Slayer's clone...smiled grimly. "You know better than that, 'Hanged Scholar'. I never had any legit claim on that name to begin with. Call me Shadow, I guess. I'll explain in a bit."

"Shadow," Tara said, fidgeting, "I...I would've thought you knew b-better is all. She spoke to you m-mentally, I guess?"

Buffy nodded. "You two can let Meticulous Owl go. He was in on it. This is part of the deal. The Princess decided waiting to find a hero when she had me on hand was foolish. And I...she doesn't trust the other me to keep her bargains. I'm her failsafe."

"B-but Buffy can just dust you any time she wants!"

Shadow flexed her arms experimentally. "That's what she thinks too. The Princess doesn't think so, and...I feel more _me_ , if that makes any sense."

"I wouldn't have pegged you as Moonshadow," Willow said.

"Me neither...but I've always been pretty versatile, right?" Buffy nodded to Owl. "You should get back. Miles to go and all that. And...well...I guess I've got to go get ready to kill myself."

**Chapter 41--The Death of Buffy Summers**

"So Oversight gives all these nonsensical crappy orders and you all just do what you're told?" They were out in the howling desert, in the middle of nowhere. It was hot, it was dry, and there was a sandstorm blowing up, but Anya had made like Koschei the Deathless and felt like she was at the beach. Iron Siaka looked a lot less comfy.

"It's not that simple," Iron Siaka explained. "To start with, everybody wants to do things the simplest way with the least trouble. Any Convention might give orders to give a baby some candy, or take it. So when Oversight sends you to do something weird, no one bats an eye. Same for if they tell you to kill the baby. It's awful, but they don't say it lightly."

"You seem awfully easy with it."

"I'm just trying to be professional, that's all. You should talk." Iron Siaka fiddled with her mace--at least it looked like fiddling.

Anya gave her a death glare, and she stopped. "I was evil! I admitted it in court!"

Siaka stuck the mace back in its belt loop. "But second, Oversight is Oversight. They run things. Someone has to."

"Not the Elders? Not the Maidens? Not the--"

"Maybe they're on Oversight. Nobody really knows. But the Maidens are busy with the Games most of the time."

Anya began waving her hands around wildly. Sometimes that made people realize how ridiculous they were being. "So for all you know, _D'Hoffryn_ could be running Oversight. Everyone's afraid enough to obey, nobody can crack their authorization, and nobody knows where the messages come from."

Siaka leaned forward into Anya's face. "You sound like you're suggesting a mutiny! Do you have any--?"

"Two words! Bronze! Faction!"

Iron Siaka's eyes went wide. "We had a thousand-year prophecy on that. We've got nothing on Oversight!"

"So make another one! Or use your own damn judgement for once! What are you, a mouse? Or an Exalt who _writes her own Destiny?_ "

Outrage flickered over Iron Siaka's face, followed by something surprisingly like understanding. She leaned even closer and planted a big one on Anya's lips. 

Ick. No stubble. "You don't happen to have kept that hearthstone, do you?"

Siaka clapped a hand to her face. "Dzhesus."

*****

Fred bobbed to the surface, tentacles floating loosely around her waist. "I wish I could go see Buffy. This is taking forever."

Renjin floated near her, eating fish. "I didn't think you were all that close."

"We're not. But the few times I've seen her since coming here, she was upset about her body changing." Fred lifted three rubbery tentacles from the corona that had temporarily replaced her legs. "She's afraid of not being human anymore. I could let her know that's not so bad."

"I've never met an Exalt as concerned with her humanity as Buffy," Renjin said. "In fairness, most of the ones I know are Lunars."

"On my world, most people don't know about any nonhuman sapients unless they've met a demon. I guess the elementals and gods and raksha are around somewhere, but they probably just get called demons." Fred took a bite out of a fish she'd snagged.

"Ghosts?"

"Lots of people don't believe in those either, and they're still human souls." Fred spat out some bones. "Anyway, Buffy was trained to believe the Slayer should act in secret. And anyone who looks too different would be a freak, too."

"I don't get it," Kolohi said, surfacing behind Fred. "I mean, sure, being the only one against all the demon hordes, it was different for her. But if there are any more of you going back, even just to visit...society doesn't define us. We define society."

"She's more powerful than when she left, too," Renjin added. "I don't see why she shouldn't just define her own new normal. She's doing it now, right?"

Fred frowned. "I'm honestly not sure how real this world is to Buffy. Maybe she's just...indulging herself." Fred finished off the fish.

"For what it's worth," Kolohi said, "even if she's not evil at all, you might be doing everyone a favor if you have to kill her. Even her."

Fred flicked the fish's remains into the water. There were things she wasn't ready to think about yet. "I was gonna hunt a bird of some kind while the geomancers study the problem. I want to fly."

Renjin smiled. "Get to it, then. We'll hold the fort."

*****

"I don't understand what happened with Buffy," Anja said from where her head rested on Xander's chest. "You said she's never shown signs of these problems before."

"Anya says the Sids think it's an early case of Solar madness, maybe because she's not strictly a Solar any more. Gold Faction has to make us police our own, or the Bronzes will get a new lease on life." He didn't really believe Anya was just going to let him get away with taking other lovers, but at this point he was in for a penny already. Also...she wasn't exactly innocent herself.

"You're going to kill her yourself?" Anja seemed genuinely curious, not shocked. "Your best friend?"

"It's what she'd do for me," Xander explained. "I hope one of us can talk her down, but if it really comes to killing her, I know it's what she'd want."

"I'm glad you talked it over ahead of time," Anja said. "If you can manage, I'd ask the same."

Xander sat up a little so that he could nod. "In our line of work, any one of us could have been vamped at any time, even Buffy. And there are other ways to get turned evil, too. I staked my own best friend--before her, I mean--the first time we did anything to help Buffy. It was mostly an accident, but anyway it was the right thing to do. If I need killing, I hope you'll help, and if I can I'll do the same for you."

"Knowing that will help," Anja said reluctantly. "It won't be easy. How many years have you been helping Buffy fight demons?"

"About five now. A lot of the time I've been the guy who bought donuts to keep the others going while they did the research, but I've had my moments. There was this time when I faced down some undead guys who were going to blow up the school while Buffy was fighting demons upstairs." Xander hadn't enjoyed much of that while it was happening, but he looked back fondly on it now. "And no, it wouldn't have killed the demons. They were the kind that takes something special to kill."

"And again, no Exaltation till you arrived here." Anja smirked at him. "Again, clearly there were none free in your world, not if you spent five years facing down invulnerable demons with no powers of your own. I guess if someone had to sweep me off my feet...."

"Seems like I sweep everyone off their feet these days. You, Nelumbo, frikkin' Leviathan..."

"Speaking of 'frikkin' Leviathan'..." Anja gave him a sultry wink.

"Oh no you don't. That's between me and him." Xander pulled a pillow over his head.

"I can make you tell me, Alexander." Her hands pinned the pillow to his face.

"Mmnmmph!" Looked like bondage fun time. Well...he needed the distraction.

*****

"You can't really mean to kill your sister," Glory said, narrowing her eyes at Dawn. She needed a new name, really. Of course, Glory was a fountain of them, but that didn't make them any good.

"Maybe not," Dawn said. "But I need to close out that chapter of my life. Buffy's not really my sister, but we felt like she was. I mostly just want to see if she'll apologize and...." Dawn hesitated. "...maybe we can just be friends. Does that sound weird?"

"Cause it's usually a romantic thing? Nope. You gotta spend some time deeper in the court politics, Summer's Day. Cause Buffy's Exalted? You betcha. Since when have Exalted ever been friends with raksha?"

"I never thought I'd be friends with you," Dawn said, "but here we are laying out in the sun in our bikinis sipping--this isn't alcohol, is it?"

"Candied night terrors mixed with essence of first love. Extremely exotic blend." Glory held up her margarita glass. "No wonder if it makes you drunk. Well, kiddo, if you're gonna confront an Exalt, I'd plan ahead and bring backup. Want me along?"

"I, ah, I dunno...." Dawn trailed off. There was no way Buffy and Glory would make up. But maybe that was better. She _wasn't_ Buffy's sister, after all. "Can you stay out of sight till I know if I need you? You don't seem big on stealth."

"A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do."

*****

"Well, at least we cleared the air," Anya said happily. Iron Siaka glared at her. It was one thing to admit that maybe Oversight was worth questioning; very much another that Anya only liked her body when there was a dick waggling around in front of it. Which was to say, not now and not at times when Siaka felt comfortable.

At least Venus hadn't said they were obligated to screw. But the fact remained that everything about Anya was a major turn-on except that she didn't feel the same way. There were ways around even that, of course, but she wasn't sure Anya would permit her to use them.

"Hey, is that--?" Anya began to point, but Siaka was already pulling to the side.

"Wyld Hunt," Siaka said. "Be cooperative unless things go south. You can actually tell them you're an Immaculate Master."

Anya nodded at once. "Because technically I am." She pulled a bow out of her travel pack.

As the hunters drew closer, Anya offered them the slightest inclination of her head. "I am Master V'Neef Anaya. Is there any way I can be of assistance?"

There were only two of them, and they seemed worn from travel. The taller of them, a willowy woman with a pale blue cast to her skin. "I am Peleps Weylan. This is Mnemon Yudani." She indicated the compact black man beside her. "We are in disgrace, and would not disturb you, but we are in pursuit of a powerful and dangerous Anathema."

Anya made a face. "Is her name by any chance Buffy Summers?"

"The Despot of Gem has already slipped through our fingers once," Weylan said disconsolately. "If this frenzied creature has a name we do not know it. It rides outlier on an even more powerful Anathema who brings an army of beastmen with him."

"Lunars," Siaka said as softly as she could manage. Anya nodded.

"We travel toward Gem," Anya said, "but if we can assist you quickly I don't see why we shouldn't."

"You had better," said Yudani abruptly.

Anya and Iron Siaka turned. The thing behind them resembled an insect at first glance, but it was well above human size. Its smooth head bore a mouth but no visible eyes.

"Damn it," Anya said. "Get behind me." She began striking her chakras, assuming Wood Dragon form.

The creature's mouth opened, revealing a row of jagged teeth, followed by a secondary mouth, just as nasty. "You know this thing?" Siaka queried.

"Only from the movies," Anya muttered, and the fight was on.

Weylan and Yudani opened up respective cans of whoopass on the creature, bodies crackling with energy. Weylan's water-charged blow didn't seem to impair it much, but Yudani filled the ground around the monster with churning stone that made it stumble. It was a start. As they did so, Iron Siaka let out a discordant shriek that sent the thing reeling, though the Dragon-Blooded also stumbled back covering their ears.

The creature sent a spiked tail curling around to lash out at its attackers. Siaka brought up the Dulcet Consolator, but the tail curled around at the last moment and pierced her arm. The wound sprayed blood and shot pain up to her shoulder, but immediately began to heal.

Trailing a queasy-making mixture of green and violet light, Anya nocked and fired off an arrow in one swift motion, a green-black aura leaping to it from her hands. The creature let out a horrible hissing scream as its exoskeleton cracked and sprayed fluid in every direction. A gout of the stuff caught Yudani full in the face, and he went down with his hands clutching at his features, bellowing in pain.

"Damn it," Anya muttered. "That was supposed to be an insta-kill." Now a swarm of little scuttling things like seven-fingered hands surged forward. One of them leapt for Siaka's face, and she batted it down with the Consolator, but more were coming. Lightning surged in her eyes, and she raised both hands and sent it crackling at the beast. She thought the little ones were probably still tied to it...hopefully anyway.

Yudani was struggling back to his feet, his face sizzling and acid-seared. Weylan was battling the scuttlers trying to reach his own face.

Anya drew another arrow, wavering. The Soul Mastery technique might indeed drop the beast in one shot, with a bit of luck--probably more than she was likely to get against a rampaging Lunar chimera--but it took a lot out of you. Her arrow struck true, spraying more acid around the battlefield, and the beast turned and fled.

"We're going after that thing," Anya said. "Get Yudani and get on your speeder!"

"They're not made for combat!"

"Nope," Anya agreed. "But don't tell me you can't make it work!"

She had a point. Siaka hefted Yudani over her shoulder, Anya grabbed Weylan by the arm, and they ran for the riders. The chase was on.

*****

"This can't be right!" Kolohi shouted,slamming into the attacking pirates with all her armored bulk. "The Lintha don't cooperate with Skullstone!"

Fred swooped down over the zombies and picked her moment to drop out of her newly-acquired gull form. Landing amidst the crowd, she bowled them over. They were armored, so it bought her only moments. Moments were all she needed. She brought up a moonsilver dagger and drove it into the nearest zombie's eye socket.

She'd wondered for a while why Renjin didn't have a war form. The tiny, brightly-colored frog that was his spirit form leapt from Lintha to Lintha, demonstrating why as his contact poison dropped them one by one.

"They must have signed a treaty of some kind," Fred concluded, shifting into her own war form and seizing zombies in her tentacles. "The Lintha are pretty mercenary, right?"

"Yes," Kolohi acknowledged, "but they serve the Yozi Kimbery. Demons don't usually get along with undead."

"So I've heard," Fred muttered. They needed a spy. The tip of one of her tentacles sprouted a stinger and pierced one of the zombie's chests. "There." Tiny larvae flooded into the creature and seized control of it for her. "We'll send this one back."

"How's it going to report to us?" Kolohi said skeptically.

Fred just pointed to her eyes.

*****

"If I'm not going to be spending time in Thorns for a while," Anja explained, "it's worth the effort to develop my...how did you put it? My superpowers a little."

"Well, sure," Xander said, "but this isn't what I was expecting."

"You're sleeping with Leviathan but...what? One of you is always a girl?" Anja looked a little put out. "Well, there go the stories I wrote in my diary."

"It's not exactly...this is just kind of what I'm familiar with," Xander fumbled. "I've been meaning to try it out, but--"

"What about when you're the girl? You're familiar with that?" Anja folded her arms over her slightly-hairy chest.

Xander threw up his hands. "I don't know if it's Amyana's memories or what. It just feels unexpectedly comfortable being her."

Anja pursed her lips. "Well," she said after a moment, "I guess if I could take Ingosh's form that would probably be comfortable too. Except everyone would start going on about my legacy,anyway. But if you were planning on trying it out, it's a good time, because I'm in the mood to try out some of his memories myself."

Xander thought that through. "Oh. Okay, what the hell. Anya'll get a good laugh out of it, at least."

So naturally that was when the alarms started going off.

*****

Dawn swung up onto the camel. "Let's come riding in from the west," she said after a few moments. Glory snickered. "We'll surprise the hell out of Buffy."

Glory glanced backwards over her shoulder. So far her followers had managed to evade Dawn's attention. She really had forgotten everything.

Gem was going to be _delicious_.


	16. Twilight Sparkle

Harmony lay in a pile of scorched rubble, working her aching body. The first part of her plan must have worked; her skin was pink and unmarred despite the fireball. She felt a little pain from being hit by debris, and that was all.

The trouble was she hadn't had time to run before blowing up in everyone's face. Still, it looked like everyone else was probably dead. Even the Mohra's gem had been shattered in the explosion. So she let herself lie there, wearing a few tattered scraps of cloth that hadn't been burned or blasted off her entirely, and rested, breathing slowly in and out.

_Breathing?_

Well, sometimes these things became like a reflex or something. You spent your whole life doing them, and still had to breathe to talk. Harmony stopped breathing. Pressure built up in her chest. What the hell was going on? Gasping, she started breathing again.

Harmony felt about on her chest. Something deep inside her was pulsing regularly. Like a heartbeat. An actual human heartbeat.

She was alive?

That was just _wrong_.

**Chapter 42: Twilight Sparkle**

"There's no way anyone lived through that," Faith sighed. "Well...anyone else," she amended, stabbing a fleeing Fyarl through the heart with a fallen dinner fork.

"You might have," Gwen said thoughtfully. "She was carrying an Exaltation, right?"

"Not even remotely possible," Five Days' Darkness argued. "The humans-only restriction was implanted at the deepest level. Harm may have broken something, but she couldn't have changed that without destroying the Exaltation itself, and that's equally impossible."

While the others picked their way down into the crater, Faith leapt down from broken stair to jutting pipe to shattered appliance. She wasn't sure what to feel about eviscerated Brackens or sexbots with exposed circuitry, but she did feel a little pity for Jonathan, who seemed to have bled out fast after being impaled on some rebar. Andrew had gotten a lethal shock, by the way his body was contorted.

At the very bottom, a slab of wall blocked off the lowest part of the basement. She took hold of it, straining, but it was more than she could handle. Before she could call for help, a wave of light and force swept past her, taking up her slack and shoving the wall aside. "Thanks, Ames," she called without looking back.

Warren's flayed body was covered in shattered glass, his skin and clothes hanging in tatters. Buffy or Angel would've said they felt a little sorry for him, but Faith could summon no sympathy, even after she noticed his chest still rising and falling spasmodically. There was nothing to be done, except maybe slit his throat. Faith let him lie there struggling in his blood.

At the very bottom, Harmony lay unmoving, wearing only tatters but looking untouched by the blast. Her chest rose and fell too. Was she trying to say something?

Faith reached her and crouched down. Harm's eyes stared fixedly at the sky as if she were catatonic, until Faith touched her shoulder. Then she jerked up to a sitting position. "I, I, I...this isn't right, I can't be, I shouldn't...."

Faith blinked. Harmony's skin had been warm under her hand. "Hey, Harm...you okay?"

"I just...I wanted to heal up...get away...I bit him and he blew up!" Harmony clutched Faith's hand in a deathgrip.

"Warren?" What would make Warren explode?

"No...Mohra demon. Book said 'blood of eternity'...they heal fast."

"Did it say how fast?" Something weird was going on here.

"Enough," Harm said unhelpfully. "Faith, I've lost all my powers. I'm alive."

"Hey," Kate called, "what is all this stuff up here? Swords, gemstones...this looks like a metal bow...."

"Hang in there a sec," Faith shouted back. "Harm needs some help here."

"Very peculiar," Five Days' Darkness murmured. "It's as if the explosion ripped a hole into Elsewhere--what you call the ether. That's not supposed to be possible, but then when one is dealing with Exaltations, impossibility is more of a suggestion than a rule."

Faith hauled Harmony up onto her back. Nothing seemed physically wrong with her, but she was definitely in some kind of shock. "The ether? Where vampires' souls go?"

"Well, yes," the god agreed. "Does that have some relevance to the situation?"

"Live ex-vampire at the bottom of a house-sized crater," Faith yelled. "I'm thinking yes!"

"She's human?" Five Days' Darkness sounded worried.

"Is that a _problem_?"

"Well," the dark man said, "we should know by the end of the day.".

Faith and Kate helped Harmony into the van. She frowned as they fastened her seatbelt, but she was definitely still out of it.

"If she's human," Shoat asked quietly, "does that mean--?"

To Faith's surprise, Harmony shook her head vigorously at the idea. "It wanted Warren," she said. "Someone smart. It must have left."

Five Days' Darkness narrowed his eyes. "Defiler Exaltation, like Amy's. Just as well Warren didn't get it. I hear he's a real piece of work."

"Pretty bad for a human," Harmony agreed. "Anyway I'm no use to it." She settled back into the seat while Gwen draped a blanket over her.

"Is that how it works?" Shoat asked Five under her breath. "It was already inside her." Harmony either ignored her or didn't hear.

"We had contingency plans for unsuitable Exalts during the Primordial War," the god said, "but they were never needed. Autochthon's guidance systems were too good. But near the end of the Second Age, the Yozis and Deathlords got ahold of some of the Solars and changed them. Both groups sometimes chose candidates...idiosyncratically. They would Exalt people based on revenge, or bizarre philosophical criteria, or any number of strange ideas. We expected, once we heard, that such attempts would simply fail, or that inappropriate Exalts would self-destruct."

"Lemme guess," Kate said. "It didn't happen."

"No," Five agreed. "Some of the crazier sorts failed because they were failures as people. And there was an adjustment period of sorts, when such out-of-the-ordinary Exalts were especially vulnerable. Some of them died then. But by and large, once a few months had passed, the Exaltations brought such hosts up to speed."

"Then Harmony should be...like me?" Amy wondered.

"Unless the Exaltation was broken by the sudden loss of its alembic," Five said, "I would expect exactly that. She'll need extra help for a short time. And then...within a few months, impossible though it may sound, she'll be unraveling Lilah's plans, building weapons, or casting spells. Perhaps all three."

"I don't think I can even imagine that," Faith said, glancing over at Harmony, who didn't even seem aware of the discussion.

"One day," the deity said, "you'll be able to outrun Quicksilver and disguise yourself as the Rock. While naked. Still sound impossible?"

Faith shrugged and traded her bike off to Sam. This she wanted to see.

Harmony perked up as they pulled into the mall parking lot. "Ugh," she muttered. "At least I'm not burnt to a crisp still."

"Or stuck inside Warren's head," Amy agreed. "I thought he was cool once--he was pretty smart---but he's also pretty nasty inside."

"I wasn't so great myself," Harmony said sadly.

"Harm, I could've used a friend, but honestly I didn't want to be part of Cordy's little clique. I didn't mind you rejecting me for that." The van screeched to a rather abrupt stop. "Hey! Kate, what's the deal?"

"Looks like a murder," Kate sighed. "You'd think people would at least realize they live on a hellmouth and plan ahead. Vampires everywhere."

Harm peeked out the window. "Oh, come on. I know you were a cop, but seriously, you think that's a vampire attack?"

Kate raised an eyebrow and pointed to her neck.

"Oh for pete's sake. Somebody lend me some clothes. I'm gonna have to go in anyway."

There was a bit of brief shuffling clothes around--B-bot had the least modesty but her shirt was too tight for Harm--and finally Harmony hopped out of the van muttering about being horribly mismatched.

"They're not going to let us up close, you know," Kate said.

"I can see it from here," Harmony groaned. "The swelling's all wrong. That's a snakebite." She walked a little to the left. "Big one--see there? It crawled away. But someone left tracks over there on the damp pavement--um, wow, nearly six feet tall, definitely guy sneakers. Didn't need the snake. I think he wanted it to look like a vampire attack for some reason. Sending a message to someone. Um. Whoever's in charge here with no Slayer around I think." Kate stared at her; Faith tried to look away so her eyes wouldn't bug out too. "What? You guys are supposed to be the smart ones. Don't play tricks on me, okay? It's mean."

"Nobody's teasing you, Harmony," Sam said slowly. To Kate, she whispered, " _Did_ you get any of that?" Kate shook her head and shrugged.

"C'mon," Harmony said irritably. "I look like a total fashion victim here. Let's go in before somebody decides I'm the vampire who did it."

"Got it," shouted a police officer off in the grass. She held up a huge diamondback rattler, dead or in torpor.

Kate looked at Five Days' Darkness in alarm. Five averted his eyes, stuck his hands in his pockets, and whistled an idle tune.

*****

An hour later it was getting dark, but Harmony was wearing a brilliant pink dress she'd gotten for a steal, and everyone else had their old clothes on except Amy, who'd taken Harm's fashion advice and bought some slacks ahead of the trends. "They're the next big thing," she'd insisted.

"Anyone for a bathroom break? Amy?" Kate hunted through her purse, came up with a makeup case, grunted, and finally located a tampon.

"Haven't needed a bathroom break in a week," Amy said. "I'm not dead, so it must be a thing."

"Must be," Kate said.

Harmony blinked. "So that's what that is! Guys, I'm gonna need some food. I'm hungry for actual food!"

"Wendy's okay?" Amy asked. "We'll just trek down to the other end of the mall."

"Wendy's it is," Harm agreed.

"Demons, demons, demons," Amy grumbled as they left the others behind. "I still don't know why people don't see it."

"Me neither," Harmony said, and began pointing casually around. "Half-Bracken. Lister. Three vampires. Eep! Ethros demon! Thesulac," she added, glancing at what looked like a vacant spot. "More vampires...hey, is he the new big bad?"

"Huh?" Amy stared.

"Lots of bling, keeps looking at his cell phone--vampire who's texting, so either young or smart--I think he's the best-connected guy I've seen all day, honestly." She glanced at Amy. "You don't see it?"

"Harm, could you always read people like this?" Harm still insisted the Exaltation had left the building, but she was acting awfully strange. Not completely different, but definitely much more...aware.

"Well, duh. Of course I could. I may not have much else going for me, but I've still got my keen fashion sense. Ugh," Harmony shouted as they passed a shoe store. "Those pumps are hideous! Who let the designer leave the zoo?"

"Harmony," Amy asked carefully, "who won the Crimean War?"

"Um...why are you asking me? France, Britain, and the Ottoman Empire. Oh, and some place called Sardinia. Where they make sardines I guess."

"What kind of bear do you think Kate turns into?"

"I dunno. Grizzly? _Ursus horribilis_? They used to live in California, I think. Why ask me this stuff?"

"I still want to try and get my GED. Maybe I won't need it, but it can't hurt." Ah, short line! "What do you wanna eat?"

"Um...just a regular burger. I've got to work out what I like again." Harmony fidgeted with her hair. "Everything feels weird now being mortal again."

"Hey, you ever bite anyone in the femoral artery?" Amy pretended to study the menu; she already knew she wanted a chicken sandwich.

"In the thigh?" Harm looked baffled. "Usually you just go for the jugular or the carotid. If you want a different taste or something you mostly want to change how they're feeling." A frown suddenly spread over her face. "Why the hell are you asking me all this? This isn't anything from the GED. Are you making fun of me?"

"Miss, what would you like--?"

"Just a sec. Harm...I really think you got the Exaltation that was going to Warren. It didn't leave. Maybe it couldn't leave."

Harm shook her head defiantly, tossing her hair all around. "No! That'd mean I messed it up! It was supposed to go to someone smart! I can't--"

"Ladies, can I take--?"

"Harmony, it'll make you smart enough. Five Days' Darkness explained all that. You were just out of it." She put her hand on Harmony's shoulder. "It just needs--"

"Stop it!" Harmony was all but in tears. "I was trying, I really was, but I can't...I can't...."

"Would someone like to order--?"

Amy hoped her idea wasn't as dumb as it sounded. Harm needed to acknowledge what had happened, though. She reached out with her mind, and a ripple of white light burst from her and slammed Harmony into the wall. Around them people began running and screaming. Oh well.

Harmony visibly ground her teeth, and purple light tinged with gold like a sunset burst from her. Amy's grip faltered, and she stumbled forward, falling to her knees. "Stop it!" Harmony screamed. "Stop making fun of me!"

"Harm," Amy whispered, "I promise I'm not making fun of you." She reached out with her mind again, shoving Harmony back against the wall. "This is real, okay? Look at yourself!" Honestly Harm didn't look like an Infernal at all, as far as Amy could tell. But how could she not see--?

Faith burst into the restaurant and tackled Amy.

*****

Faith landed atop Amy, trying to ignore the comfortable softness underneath her. "Ames, what the hell?"

"She's flipping out, Faith! I'm just trying to get through to her. She insists nothing happened!" A ripple of light shoved Faith off her. "Keep an eye on--"

Harmony leapt atop Amy and raised her fist as if to slam it into Amy's face. Faith reached up and caught her easily. "Harm. Not a vampire any more."

"But if I'm like you then why--?"

Faith sighed. "You're not like me, Harm. You're like Amy...I guess. You'll get your strength back. Just not yet, that's all."

"Actually," Five Days' Darkness said, "she's as much like you as she is like Amy." He looked around at the now-deserted food court and sighed. "So much for getting burgers. Harmony isn't an Infernal. She's a Solar. A Twilight specifically, Ignis help us all." He bent down and brushed Harmony's forehead gently.

"How?" Kate wondered. "She was carrying an Infernal Exaltation, wasn't she?"

"Yes," Five said. "But the Infernals were modified from Solars by careless, broken Yozi hands. I told you how the Slayer line's Exaltation was broken. Now we see it again in another form. Harmony was carrying the Exaltation when she suddenly ceased to be a valid alembic and became a valid, if unlikely, host--through a heroic act, at that. She broke the Yozis' modifications. The result was the explosion that destroyed the Mears home."

"Well...that wasn't so bad," Kate suggested. "We have a Solar instead of an Infernal for the price of an explosion."

"Sucks for the Mears family," Amy said. "At least none of them were home but Warren."

"Of course," Kate said, "but it's far from the...the cosmic badness he suggested was possible."

"We should get going," Faith pointed out, "before--"

"Freeze! Everyone put your hands up!"

"Shit."

*****

Kate reflexively reached for her badge; it was gone, of course. She might still be able to defuse the situation, though.

"Officer," Harmony said, "I believe I'm the victim here. I'll be happy to make a statement for you, but I don't want to press charges."

The lead officer frowned and lowered her gun. She must see that not one of them had any weapons out. She gave Harmony a careful look. "Are you sure you're all right, miss?"

"Just a misunderstanding between friends," Harmony said firmly. "Everything's all right."

"In that case," the officer said, "we can probably manage without a statement this time. All right, guys, let's clear out." Of course. It was Sunnydale. If the police took statements every time there was a minor altercation this little town's police department would look like an LAPD precinct. The officers left in good order, if a bit quickly.

"You handled that very well," Five Days' Darkness said to Harmony. "I promise that we will get you up to speed, kiddo." And he patted her on the head.

Harmony glared at him. "I am an adult. I am beautiful and powerful and I don't like it when people act condescending. I'm not _that_ stupid."

"Harmony, listen to me, please. You do not have any reason to be stupid at all, ever again. However unconventional the occurrence may have been, you are now Exalted of the Unconquered Sun." And he went down on one knee in front of her. "You are beautiful. You are powerful. May I please help you acclimate to that?"

"O...okay," Harmony said shakingly. "My head feels really full and busy. It's kind of freaking me out."

"That will pass," Five Days' Darkness said. "Soon you will feel very good indeed."

Harmony breathed a deep sigh.

Five Days' Darkness winked at Amy. "Practice makes perfect," he said.

On the way out they passed a shoe store with dozens of customers returning pumps.

*****

"Hurts," Warren mumbled as Faith passed. Or tried to. Time jumped, stuttered, bubbled. He couldn't be sure of thinking coherently, let alone speaking.

"You would like it to stop. Would you not? I can make it stop."

"Please." The pain faded. Warren looked up into a face that might have been the product of delirium but probably wasn't. Bald man. Fangs. Red fruit punch mouth.

"You were robbed. The Old Ones understand your suffering. They too suffer without end. Would you release them? I can return the power you should have had."

"Anything," Warren breathed. "I'll do anything."

*****

"Lilah, I know you're our finest success story. But in order for our plans to succeed, we need to avoid demons who can become human through any known method.

"So speaks the Wolf."


	17. Above All Thrones

Anya had thought she knew how to drive these things. And she did...more or less. Flying a swift rider into combat wasn't nearly the same as piloting one down the road.

Peleps Weylan shouted something over the rushing wind. "What?"

"I can pilot a swift rider, Master Anaya, and I cannot easily strike the creature at range!"

"All right! Climb forward then!" That was an unusual skill--she must have connections--but not an unheard of one. Weylan clambered around the front seat and took one side of the steering yoke. Anya climbed out of the seat and wedged her feet into the steprail. That should keep her from falling off.

"Don't you want to get seated?" Anya shook her head. She'd have to aim around Weylan, or else Weylan would have to maneuver in front of the creature. She drew her starmetal powerbow, wishing she felt more confident with the thing. It was steady in her hands, but virtually all her skill was magical and very new.

Up ahead of them, the chimera vanished. It must have gone invisble, or maybe taken a form that was hard to see. Anya narrowed her eyes, and it came into focus; it had fused itself into the ground. She started to wave her hands around, then thought better of it. Instead she fired an arrow into the plot of ground the monster was in, _then_ waved her bow briefly in the air.

Yudani, or perhaps Siaka, got the hint. A moment's pause, and the ground rumbled and shifted, spewing the monster out onto the surface. At once it was in motion again.

Iron Siaka cut across the creature's path, slamming her mace down on what seemed to be its head. It tried to fuse the head into its body, but under the force of that blow its flesh splattered, sending acidic droplets everywhere. Jagged legs slashed into Siaka's chest, as well.

Anya drew back the bow to its limits. It wanted to look like a xenomorph? "Get away from her...you bitch." And she released.

Green-black energy sizzled through the creature for a third time, and it began to melt, sagging all over as its own acids consumed its flesh. Anya leapt from the speeder as Weylan came around, coming to rest inches from Iron Siaka.

"Didn't know you cared so much," Siaka said quietly.

"The 'her' in the story is a kid," Anya said, their lips an inch or so from touching, and she winked and turned away.

Iron Siaka growled deep in her throat, threw up her hands, and climbed back on the speeder.

**Chapter 43--Above All Thrones**

"Where is it going?"

"Shhh." Fred held up her hand. "I need to focus. Zombie senses are...different." Kolohi nodded and was quiet.

The zombie was walking along a ridge beneath the sea, not so deep as Fred had thought it might go. But of course pressure became an issue if you descended into the true depths of the ocean, even for a walking corpse. It had fallen casually into line with the few other survivors, and now they were filing into a great crack in the hull of an ancient wreck. Just how dead tissue could perceive anything was a mystery to Fred, but it was plain by now that zombies did.

The wreck should have been a reef by now, but only a few hardy, colorless sponges and brown clams had colonized it. Generic silvery fish swam back and forth in small numbers, but there was nothing of obvious importance waiting here for them. The zombies continued forward, though, through what might once have been a cargo hold. Here were some wooden partitions, and then the rotted door of some sort of cabin.

A man waited beyond the door, a man who was as much shark as human, pacing back and forth. "No Lintha," he muttered. "Did they abandon you or...ah. I see. Well, something more powerful next time, I suppose. And you," he said, turning toward Fred's zombie, "you may be more trouble than I expected." A dull grey ring, the dead grey of unpolished iron, flickered on his forehead, surrounding a blood red disc. "Spy on your grandmother next time. You may have better luck."

The connection shattered like glass breaking inside her mind, and Fred stumbled.and fell. "Darn it. Send word to Xander. Then we have to find another site. This one's blown."

*****

Buffy slouched in her seat, bored. She knew all about Gryfa Theed, the plump, sallow-skinned, almond-eyed rich kid from Nexus. She'd known the girl was up and about since the first hint of potential new abilities flickered through her mind. Metagaos' powers had opened themselves up to her and the Green Sun Princes, just as Oramus' and Isidoros' would in a few more days.

This little merchant's daughter was a Scourge, huh? She reminded Buffy of herself, a few years ago. It was easy to see how Metagaos had tempted her; even on her first trip to hell she was wearing silks and gemstones head to toe. Gaudy, by southern California standards, but probably the height of Nexus fashion.

The Orchid-Eater droned on for a few minutes about her background while Buffy thought about recruiting her, but it turned out her orders were to assassinate some Nexan nobility, and probably after that she was meant to take over Nexus. Dragging her down south would make trouble for her and irritate the Yozis. Oh. Wait.

Buffy leaned back in her seat and raised her hand. "I can teach her how to run a successful revolution if she wants."

"Buffy," the Orchid-Eater said tiredly, "you have been directed to begin consolidating our Southern gains. You aren't the only Green Sun Prince qualified to train Gryfa, and you will soon be delivering weapons to the revolutionaries in An-Teng."

"You don't need my full attention on a weapons caravan," Buffy argued. "I'll send a clone and some akuma. I can use Nexus and An-Teng to squeeze the southern coastal provinces--"

"No," Ligier thundered. "You are not taking into account the distances involved or the presence of Thorns in between your targets. Focus on Paragon if you want to squeeze the coast, which is at least strategically legitimate, and please make some effort to control your appetites."

Weirdly, the last got Gryfa's attention; she turned toward Buffy and winked. She must be a giant slut as well as a greedy rich kid. Metagaos again. "May Buffy give me some advice during my stay here?"

Ligier nodded irritably. "Buffy has a couple of days free. Please make _appropriate_ use of them."

There were a few more offers--Gryfa sensibly took them all--and then a dispute between Captain Gyrfalcon and a Slayer who was supposed to be working with him but who was having mental issues because of his programming to assassinate some important Lookshyan leaders. Cyan resolved it with an offer to lure the leaders north for negotiations, and there was no fight. Buffy wasn't the only one to yawn and grumble at that.

Finally the Orchid-Eater dismissed the meeting and Buffy was free to go chat up the new girl--she'd give the kid something to eat!--but immediately Cyan buttonholed her. "Meet me at my townhouse in twenty minutes, please."

Buffy breathed a long sigh. "Business before pleasure, I guess."

Cyan laughed. "What the hell. Bring the girl. We're Exalts; we can manage both at once."

Buffy snickered and went to fetch Gryfa--who, yes, was definitely interested in at least a one-night stand--before collecting some fast food from the new operation she'd convinced some Skilosh to open up in the Conventicle and rushing over to Cyan's place.

Cearr and Cyan and some blue-haired pirate were already lounging about on cushions in the upper floors and drinking wine--no chalcanth, strangely. And there wasn't a single demon to be seen.

Before Buffy could ask what was up, Cyan began with: "Gryfa, I don't fully trust you, but I trust that you're in this for personal gain. No?"

The Scourge licked her lips. Nervously? No. "I am. I have no particular loyalty to Metagaos, nor he to me."

"Well, the same is true of myself toward the Ebon Dragon, and Cearr to Malfeas, and Captain Feasalt to Cecelyne. And Buffy certainly has no loyalty toward the beings she's spent her life opposing--not even with her recent changes, I suspect."

"The Old Ones can kiss my ass," Buffy said flatly. If this place wasn't already heavily warded she'd eat Captain Feasalt's eyepatch.

"There we go." Cyan smiled thinly. "Well, then, when our latest associate arrives we have our own personal gain to discuss. Ah--here he is."

A man shrouded in heavy black cotton hobbled in, his face masked with a fierce horned-owl half-helm. "I am known as Meticulous Owl," he said. "The First and Forsaken Lion believes himself my master. So does He Who Holds in Thrall. And so does the Ebon Dragon. I have one and only one master--my own ambition--and I have reaaon to trust the same of you. I have no interest in destroying Creation nor in handing it to the Yozis. Broken or not, we were created to be the Lords of the World--and that is my aspiration. What say you?"

Buffy grinned. "You've got my attention."

*****

"Mind if I ride with you?" Iron Siaka seemed to be genuinely trying for politeness. She'd been very helpful in taking out the monster.

Anya shrugged. "Climb aboard." Weylan and Yudani might take off with the other swift rider, but that was no great loss, and their best hope of regaining their honor lay in staying and helping out.

"Do you feel anything at all for me?" 

Anya gunned the motor. "You're very good in bed. You anger me sometimes--a lot, actually--but I'm used to being on the wrong side of cultural misunderstandings. I'm willing to forgive and not murder you in your sleep. And when you're not making me angry, yes, I honestly do kind of like you. Maybe even in a romantic sort of way."

"Is the main obstacle to having a relationship with me that you don't enjoy sex with women?" Siaka sounded very earnest.

Anya spread her hands. "It looks like I have to share Xander, so he may as well have to share me. And I did say that I'm willing to forgive you if you'll stop screwing up quite so badly. So yes, I suppose. But you don't enjoy having a penis, so we're out of options. Aren't we?"

Iron Siaka shook her head. "I wouldn't do it to a colleague without asking, but one of the things we do is define relationships between people. There are charms for it. If you were willing, I _could_ make you sexually attracted to me even though you wouldn't normally be."

Anya thought about that. "But you won't do it without my permission."

"My word of honor."

Anya thought about it some more. A thousand years of wreaking vengeance on men. A dozen bad relationships with male demons, and five disastrous failures experimenting with women before she gave up on the idea that she could have her vengeance and sex too. Followed by Xander, whom she loved but with whom monogamy was clearly no longer working.

"Let me think about it for a while," she said finally. "It's a big decision."

"No pressure," Siaka said. If only that weren't progress.

*****

"Towers of Azure," Xander asked, "what's our current alert status?"

"We are currently at red alert, Admiral Amyana," the AI reported.

"Okay," Xander acknowledged. " _Why_ are we at red alert?"

"We are under attack by Lintha pirates," Towers said calmly. "Sector 3 deck 1."

"Towers," Anja said, trying to be patient, "that's the bridge. It's currently very high in the air."

"Perhaps they have flight capability?" the AI suggested reasonably.

"What about stealth capability?" Xander asked. "Because they're not onscreen."

"You are correct, Amyana. I can no longer detect any Lintha. Perhaps a malfunction has occurred."

"Sounds like it," Xander agreed. "Cancel alert and run a diagnostic. Sorry for the interruption, Anja."

Anja looked down at herself and sighed. "I'll just undo this and get dressed." She saw that he was about to object. "No, I mean we've lost the moment. It's okay." She spun around, her body wavering and flickering, and was suddenly back in her female shape, clad in a sheer white dress. "I do need to ask, where's the arsenal? I need to be able to arm myself in an emergency. I don't have a lot of combat magic. Yeah, I should learn some, but it'll take a little while."

"This way," Xander said, leading her down the corridor. "The main armories are a bunch of floors down, but we've set up emergency stations on every deck. Hell, I should set you up with a weapon and armor in your quarters...er, my quarters. If that's where you wanna sleep."

"I'd like very much to sleep...um, stay with you." Anja blushed, then grumbled about it to herself. "I'd better not be stuck feeling _exactly_ like this for the rest of this life."

Xander shrugged and laughed. "There are worse ways to feel about someone." He touched an unobtrusive silver panel, and a section of wall slid open. "We have emergency gear in here. It's not much, and most of it is jade if it's anything, but until you find something ideal, here it is."

Anja twirled a short blade berween her fingers for a moment. "I'll keep this in mind. Where's the rest?"

Xander led her out and palmed the door shut. "Down this way. Just wondering...you're not threatened by my relationship with Anya?"

Anja snickered. "We're a thing as long as our Exaltations exist, Roberts. I don't have to worry about losing you. What could threaten that?" The elevator carried them down.

"Fair enough. And I guess, in a way,the same's true of any Exalted I get involved with. Not that we can't break up, but...if Anya were to get eaten by a behemoth tomorrow--"

"Her Exaltation would come round again, memories and all. That's not a bad way to look at it." The doors slid open on a pair of Dragon-Blooded guards. "Which way?"

"Over here. We're still cataloguing and in some cases repairing, but everything to the right is sorted. Moonsilver is third aisle. There's more of it than anything but jade."

Anja picked up a daiklave with a slight curve and a slender blade. "Never seen--"

The alarm blared. "Towers of Azure to Admiral Amyana! Intruders on lowest level!"

"Give me a visual, Towers." Xander sighed as he thumbed on the viewscreen. Sure enough, the images being cycled through clearly showed empty rooms save for the great Essence engines that powered the city. "Tell Fred I'm implementing a series of security sweeps. Dragon-Blood officers will start on the bridge and work their way down through every level one by one, room by room. If this is a malfunction I want it fixed. If someone's spoofing our internal sensors I want them locked up and interrogated on why."

"Yes, Amyana. Passing your orders to Queen Burkle and Commodore Tomazri."

"Ugh. That better not continue much longer. Heads are gonna roll." He banged his forehead against an oversized locker.

"Hey, what've we got here?" The licker popped open, and Anja pulled out a smooth grey helmet. Xander peered inside.

"Towers calls that a suit of Celestial Battle Armor. Fred's got one in her quarters but she hasn't been using it because she's practicing her martial arts. You're welcome to this one, but we'll have to look up the specs. They're all custom-built."

Anja beamed at him and planted a kiss on his nose. "Have you got warstriders down here too?"

Xander shrugged. "Five, but they all need major repairs. Nobody's maintained them in a millennium. If there's more than one moonsilver one, you'll get one when I'm sure it's repaired. Sorry, but the first has got to be the Queen's."

Anja opened another equipment locker, but it was empty. Sized for another suit of powered armor, it was huge. Anja dragged him inside and pulled the door shut. "For that, you get a special reward, Roberts."

*****

"So what we have here is a twofer."

Renjin tugged at his earlobes. "Sorry, I'm not sure I heard that right."

"Twofer. As in 'two for the price of one.' A Shadowland _and_ a Wyld-Tainted land. I didn't know that was possible."

"How is it the price of one if it bought two?" Renjin shook his head. "Never mind. I've heard of places that were both Wyld-tainted and dead, but all I know about this one is that it's on the map."

"Shogunate troops died here by the thousands during the Balorian Crusade," Captain Redfang said over Fred's shoulder, "slaying a fae behemoth that ate water as if it were frozen and sent ships to the bottom under the shockwaves."

"That'd do it," Peleps Kolohi said wryly.

"Okay," Fred said, "now we start from scratch. At least we got some useful geomantic readings last time. Captain, I think we need the ring taken over there by those jet-black trees."

"The ones with the bloody veins in their leaves?" The captain didn't seem afraid, exactly...only reluctant.

"Yeah," Fred said. "Sorry. It's the characteristics of the portal. There are things--"

Captain Redfang shook his head. "Don't try to explain. Just find what you need to find. I don't know geomancy from geometry."

"They're not that different," Fred explained. "Here," she said as the sailors neared the trees with the device. "Set it down and raise the rings. There. Got it? Back up and...qrdmlzf!"

For a moment it seemed that the same nothing as last time would be the result. Then the rings began to spark more regularly as a soft buzzing sound rose, growing louder and louder, becoming a roar. Silver light flared in the ring, center to edge, rippling inward, spinning up into a vortex of light.

Fred clasped her hands together and squealed like a small child as her caste mark flared. Then she let out a whoop. "Houston...the Eagle has landed!" And she began to dance a little jig. Kolohi and Renjin laughed for a moment and then danced with her.

No one saw the translucent creature, like a hand-sized jellyfish, flop through the portal and crawl toward the ship.

*****

Angel got wearily to his feet as Buffy strolled into the room. "Spike," he hissed. "Up!" He hadn't been on great terms with Spike since the second decade of his unlife, but even he deserved better than Buffy was handing out right now. Also, warning Spike might earn Angel a little favor from her. He knew this thought was as close as he'd ever been to being broken and was unable to care.

Spike struggled to his feet. He'd spent the entire time Buffy was gone recovering. She'd been offering him nothing to eat but her political enemies. Most were such scum that even Angel could barely muster the energy to defend them, but that meant nothing to Spike's chip. And of course, she was beginning to run out of scum.

For Angel, there were...other tortures.

"God," Buffy said. "What's she done to you?" A double, then. No help there.

"Not her fault," Angel said wearily. "Mostly.That burst of Wyld energies...I'm not as safe to be around as I was." Hunger made it worse.

Tara and Willow came into view. Willow's condition seemed to be worsening, but slowly, while Tara's reptilian scales appeared stable. Angel couldn't smell anything much with the splints up his nose. Surprising him was easier.

Buffy, if anything, looked more beautiful than before. Paler, maybe. Less flushed from the perpetual heat here.... Oh no.

She must have seen his expression. "It's not what you think," she said. "I mean, it kind of is. I'm not like you. I'm like Willow."

"An Abyssal?" Spike laughed harshly. "Oh, now this is rich, Slayer. I might even still be capable of enjoying the irony."

Buffy ran her fingers lightly over Spike's nubbly forehead and the streaks of dried blood on his cheeks. Then, even more gingerly, the fanged maw that had opened in Angel's belly. It didn't try to bite her; it never had so far.

"I'm sorry all this happened to you trying to save me. I'm sorry for being beyond saving. If I can help, I will." She kissed Angel gently on the forehead, then Spike. "First, though, we have a mission. We have to overthrow the Despot...again."


	18. Somebody Has To Save the World

"So," Harmony said, "I've been thinking."

Wow. Had she really used that line and no one was laughing? Not even her?

"Whatcha been thinking about?" Faith asked, and there was no trace of mockery in her tone. She _was_ a little distracted, but that was natural, especially on Faith, since Amy was sitting in her lap.

"We can't beat Lilah the way we've been fighting her," Harmony said. "None of her little side schemes are important to her campaign, and Wolfram & Hart have buried anything that would implicate her too deep to find. We can try again to assassinate her, and we might have to, but we're not even fighting on the level she's fighting on."

"What's that?" Amy asked.

"Politics."

"Harm," Faith said lazily, "we're not politicians. There's nothing for us to run for."

"Well, yeah, but politics is about public relations. We've been trying to tear her down." Didn't they see it? "But why not build ourselves up?"

Faith scratched her head. "I kinda see what you're sayin', but how? What're you sayin' do?"

Harmony unfastened the bathrobe and tossed it aside. "It's not exactly spandex, but I didn't have any on hand." The lavender leggings and top were certainly form-fitting, but she'd added a dark purple half-jacket. Star emblems in gold peeked out between the sides of the jacket. "I'll have to pick up some footwear but I'm thinking we should have options. I also made a mask but I dunno about wearing it." She pulled out a domino mask and slipped it on. "My dad works for Wolfram & Hart, you two aren't big fans of your parents anyway, and Kate's dad is dead."

Amy stared. "You made all that in one night?" She tugged on the jacket. "Bullet-proof inserts?"

"It was easy. I've always been pretty good with a sewing machine. And I'm the least bulletproof of us for now." She stepped back through the door to pick up a folder. "I've got designs for the rest of you to look at."

"Wait...what are we doing?" Faith took the folder. "Are we talking about the actual superhero bit? Masks and capes and secret identities? I mean, it's cool, but...I thought none of this was supposed to be public. My Watchers always said the world wasn't ready to find out about demons and vampires."

Amy shrugged. "Is it ever going to be ready? What would make it ready? I'll bite. What's the plan?"

"The police will make trouble if we try fighting criminals in public," Harmony said. "I don't mean ignore it if you see someone getting mugged, but try to help like you're a bystander. Call the police and then just stay there and restrain 'em. But fires and wrecks and stuff, those happen all the time. Help people and be _flashy_ about it. And when there's nothing going on...we go clubbing."

"Wait. What?" Now it was Amy's turn to look confused.

"We want to be seen. We want to be celebrities. Even a presidential campaign won't be able to keep up with superheroes on the six o'clock news." Faith and Amy stared at each other for a moment. "What is it? Guys? Am I still being stupid?"

Amy shook her head and grinned. "Shit no. You game, Faith?"

Faith grinned too. "Shit yeah. Make those costumes, Harm. It's time to go public."

**Chapter 44: Somebody Has To Save the World**

"So we have an interesting mix of artifacts here," Five Days' Darkness said to Kate, indicating the table. "Here we have a short daiklaive made from red jade. I haven't been able to identify these magitechnological devices at all. These bracers are discreet Essence armor--that is, they make a skintight force field around one's body...."

"What in the hell--?" Kate rubbed her eyes. "What are you guys wearing?"

Harmony had on some kind of purple, mostly skintight outfit with a teeny jacket. Faith had on her own jacket, but someone had added extra pockets, and she'd somehow squeezed herself into a leather bodysuit even tighter than her regular pants--no, those _were_ her leather pants, somehow attached seamlessly to a sleeveless leather top. There'd been gold trim added here and there, but it wasn't that different from what Faith tended to wear. Amy's outfit seemed the strangest, a mostly-white bodysuit with green trim and sparkling faux-gems attached at cuffs and pockets. Green thread outlined a white flame on her chest.

Five Days' Darkness raised his eyebrows. "How...apropos. Did you make these, Harmony?"

Harm nodded eagerly. "It gets easier and easier," she bubbled. The former vampire seemed more introspective, and her vocabulary had grown, but for most purposes her personality seemed unchanged. "I can't believe I freaked out over this. It's, like, totally great! I finished the last one in like half an hour!"

Five seemed to be struggling not to laugh. "Even in the First Age I never knew a Twilight like you, Harmony. That is not an insult, nor is it truly a compliment; it is simply an observation. No wonder, of course. I merely...maybe we lost a good deal by not taking greater care to raise up the seemingly unsuitable and make them powerful."

"Is this a superhero thing?" Kate asked. "I know they're popular, but as a cop I had issues even with Angel Investigations and they were going after stuff we were missing. Police and vigilantes don't really get along like in the comics."

Amy nodded. "We know. We're trying to work out how not to step on the police's feet...much. There's some wiggle room."

Five Days' Darkness cleared his throat. "Right now, within the framework of popular elections and your limited power, that sounds wise. However, I do not believe that, as Exalted, you will long be able to fit into the existing power structures. Even superheroes as modern media depict them are astonishingly passive. They do little more than oppose supervillains. The world will change for you as it does not for them. Still," he said, smiling, "it is the best starting point I can imagine for you."

Kate made a face. "You seriously think this is a good idea?"

Five looked into her eyes. "I think that you, Sam, and Shoat--at minimum--need Harmony to design your costumes. Her plan is not without flaw, but she has correctly identified what you have left lacking."

"Oh no," Kate protested. "You're not getting me into one of those suits."

*****

"Did you make this thing from fake mink?" Kate held up the fur-trimmed outfit. "Jesus, Harmony, I can't squeeze into this thing!"

"Try," Five Days' Darkness said, still struggling not to laugh. "I think you'll find that it fits you just as it should."

Kate glanced at Sam Finn for help, but Samantha was already wearing a red-orange suit that seemed based on her military uniform. The modern concept of what heroes should wear was amusing to him, but if it helped them get into the mindset and garnered them the public attention they needed, he had no objection. It certainly was no more sexualized than the Exalted had worn in ancient times--though Kate would no doubt ensure that Shoat wore nothing of the kind, as she should. Sooner or later one of the men would Exalt--or perhaps, conceivably, Holtz would come over to their side--and both Harmony and Faith were the sort to ensure they also got their own.

Grumbling, Kate vanished into her room with the costume. She'd fit into it, just as he'd said. Harmony was rubbing her eyes. "You seem to have had a busy morning."

"Busy night too. I can't sleep with all this...this...fizz in my head!" She ruffled through her folder. "I drew up some public-relations strategy...studied math...doodled a bit..." and here she held up a unicorn sketch that might have been done by a professional artist, "...aw damn it. I can't sing this. I can barely sing 'Happy Birthday'."

"Try," Five said, smiling. This was a delight. Why had he never tried to persuade the Incarna that more ordinary people might have value as Exalts, once the War had ended?

"Eh, it's about life as a vampire anyway." She started to crumple the paper, and he put his hand on hers.

"Many artists sing of what they never were, let alone what they were once." He tried to make a less-intimidating smile, to make his voice even gentler. "Try."

Harmony opened her mouth, and indeed the attempt was only passable, even for a mortal--but from what he had heard that was a vast improvement. Her eyes went wide, and she kept singing while he swayed and tapped his fingers to the rhythm.

Kate poked her head out. She seemed to be struggling just a little with the pants. "Hey, is that Buffybot? She sounds autotuned. Is she going to wear one of these getups too?"

"It is not," Five said softly, "but likely yes."

"Harm? Holy shit!"

"...and brush and brush my hair/  
Stuck in the same place I've always been/  
And I'll keep wonderin' and wonderin'/  
And wonderin' and wonderin'/  
When will my life begin?"

*****

"Do you have any idea how foolish this was?" Mara stood over Lilah's bed.

Lilah pulled up her shirt to show the unmarred skin of her belly. "He couldn't hurt me. I went all sandy and the little tapeworm just fell out of me. Holtz took off into the Quor-toth with the brat and his new friend. I doubt we'll see them again."

"His daughter?" Mara frowned. "I can't believe he'd leave her behind."

"You hadn't heard yet? I'd have thought you'd know long before me. Justine sprang her before they left. They're one happy nuclear family living in an unspeakable hell dimension." Lilah shook her head. "Let them rot there, for all I care."

_**Where's Drusilla?** _

_Does it matter?_

**_Yes!_** Darla hesitated and fumbled about for a few moments. **_Where'd she find that shadow thing? It can't have actually come from Heinrich. What was she trying to accomplish with it? We need to know._**

Lilah rolled her eyes. _Is that what this is about? Really? Because--_

_**Don't even go there! Look, think about what happened with Harmony. Do you want that happening to someone much more experienced and volatile?** _

"Sorry," Lilah murmured. "Internal debate." _That was a freak accident. We're working on ways to prevent it from happening again. And I still think you just don't want to lose Drusilla._

**_What, and you do? I thought humans were supposed to be the all-loving bleeding hearts!_ **

_And I thought vampires didn't love anyone. Anyway it's not up for debate._

"Try and maintain good relations with your coadjutor," Mara said. "They turned out to be more important than we anticipated."

"She's upset that Dru hasn't returned yet," Lilah explained. "She visited us in suburban hell what must have been several times daily for her. But we were in Quor-toth for months, to us. And then we got back to find she's missing."

"I'm sure she'll turn up," Mara said patiently. "I'm more concerned with you rabbiting the way you did. We had to send Holtz after you and he promptly went rogue. We're back down to you. You see the issue? You're our sole Exalt right now and you even endangered your life and your political career."

"I had to do something or explode," Lilah insisted. "I'm sorry."

Mara nodded. "That's better. We'll figure this out. You're the best hope we have. Just be certain we don't lose any more Infernals the way we did with Harmony. We need them more than you realize."

Lilah frowned. For what? But she didn't ask.

*****

"So this," Amy said, "it's exactly what we're _not_ supposed to be doing!"

"Someone decides to rob the liquor store while I'm here?" Faith laughed, spun, and tripped the first robber up. "I could care less what I'm 'supposed' to be doing."

"Fair point," Amy said. The second robber pointed his gun at her stomach and fired. A plate of tarnished steel flickered into existence between her and the bullet, then vanished again as the bit of lead dropped to the floor. "So are you going to throw it at me now? They say that it's _really_ effective."

"Guys?" Harmony popped in the door. "Hey! No! I told you this isn't--" She gave up as Faith lifted the first robber into the air. "I'm really sorry, sir," she said to the cowering shopkeeper. "We weren't going to do this kind of thing."

"Not complaining, miss. We're good."

"Well thanks. I know this is technically vigilantism and--"

"Harm," Amy interrupted. "Self-defense. Bystander laws. Look them up."

"Ok. We got security footage, right?"

The cashier pointed to the cameras. "Always, Miss...Harm?"

The ex-vampire groaned. "Just Harm," she said finally. "We'll stay for the the police to question." Faith grumbled in response. "Nice and legal, Faith."

"You stay. I'm a convict, or did you forget?"

"Police," Amy hissed, and Faith slapped herself on the forehead.

"I'm just gonna stand right over here," she told the cashier. "I wasn't involved, I was just here shopping, you barely noticed I was here."

The cashier nodded just as a pair of patrol officers burst in to find two would-be thieves tied up and cowering in the corner. "Thank you, officers. I'm glad you're here to take these people in, but you can see some helpful citizens have taken care of the rest."

The taller cop strolled up to Harmony, looking her, then Amy, in the eye. "Is this what it looks like? Seriously? Kids, this is--"

"We're on our way to a party," Amy said. "This looks weird but it's all coincidental. I promise."

The cop turned, his gaze passing right over Faith as if she weren't even there. "You were lucky. Don't do anything this stupid again. You got me? We'll let you go to your party, but you'll be hearing from us in a day or two."

"Thank you. Glad we could help out," Amy said flatly.

The policeman grunted and moved on.

*****

Outside the abandoned Hyperion Hotel, sparks crackled through the air, searing, coalescing, and a male figure emerged. A younger man, really, to all appearances, than when Daniel Holtz had left this continuum.

"All clear," he called. Justine emerged first, still fit but with scars carved across her left arm and face, most certainly an older woman than when she entered. Then Sarah, burned recently on one hand but a young, pretty woman in her prime. And last, guarding the rear, Stephen, who'd grown into a fine young man in spite of his parentage. The Destroyer, the creatures of that other world called him, and he deserved the name, though here on Earth it would carry unfortunate implications.

Sparkles of light flitted from the hotel. Holtz steeled himself. This being was no creature of evil, nothing like Sahjian, but he had difficulty trusting any other being now besides his family, especially one as alien as this. The Transcendent Architect claimed humanity, of course. And yet, watching it coalesce into its golden-yellow form out of light, he could only wonder and worry.

"Welcome, Abaddon," she said. "The gateway is about to open. I can sense it. It's time to fulfill your destiny."

"What destiny?" Justine queried. "We just got back to Earth!"

The Transcendent Architect smiled without emotion. "The son will kill the father."

*****

The lights and the music pulsed together. Faith was in her element, and if Amy was any less so it definitely didn't show.

Kate was not.

If she wanted to drink, she went to a bar. She hadn't entered a club since being fired, and back then it had been business. Anyway, all this fur, fake or not, was earning her plenty of hostile stares from the younger crowd here.

Sam clapped her on the shoulder. "I look too military for this place," she sighed. "I want to jump the bones of every guy here, but no one even wants to look at me...cause I'm the man. So to speak."

"Being Dragon-Blooded doesn't seem like it's all it's cracked up to be," Kate said. "At least not when you're on your own. You thought about getting the unit off on leave?"

"Considered it," she said. "But think about how Harmony's plan interacts with ninety-nine Human Torches."

"I see the problem." Pyrokinesis wasn't Sam's only talent by any means, but it guaranteed image troubles. "They're staying in South America, then?"

"Until we need them or the situation changes, yeah. How's being a Lunar treating you?"

"I could stand to learn something besides combat powers, but they seem to come the easiest." Kate shrugged. "I guess they'll come in handy soon enough."

"What about turning into something besides--?" Sam's attention wandered abruptly as a tall muscular guy wandered by. "Damn it, Five says I should try not to screw anybody but other Dragonblooded, but they're all girls!"

"Besides a bear?" Kate tried to guide her back to the subject at hand. "That'd be nice, but I have to stalk and kill it myself. Sadly not as kind and gentle as those kids' books. People included. I don't mind the death penalty, but eating people already on death row won't help any."

"We've all got our problems. Oh, Harm says Five Days' Darkness is trying not to tell us that sooner or later we're all going to go barking mad." Sam started to walk after another guy, then managed to stop herself. "I believe it. Damn."

"What's that Faith's always calling us? Hot chicks with superpowers?" Sam nodded absently. She was breathing heavily and keeping her hands in her pockets. "So how come we're stuck being wallflowers?"

"We're the responsible ones," Sam said, and promptly seized a handsome guy by the arm to drag him onto the dance floor.

Kate grumbled and went back to the bar.

*****

"If I could dance like that--" some girl said idly, watching Faith go. Amy had experienced the Slayer physique...well, the Night physique...firsthand away from combat, but she hadn't actually seen Faith dance. Her girl moved like a cat, lithe and powerful.

 _ **Say "Done,"**_ Halfrek suggested.

"Done," Amy said, with a wink she didn't actually feel any mischief behind. _I'm not a vengeance demon, am I?_

 _ **No, but it feels right,**_ Hallie said. _**You can't give her Exalt-level skills, but I think you can make her better. I'm kind of feeling out the controls in here, but I can't actually handle them myself.**_

The girl was staring at her. "Don't believe me?" Amy asked. "Here, take a look at this." She reached out with one hand---there was the familiar ripple of white force--and lifted the girl off the floor. There wasn't even a sense of strain. The girl shrieked, and Amy sat her down carefully.

"How'd you do that?"

"Magic," Amy said with a smirk. "So dance already?" The girl stared, seemed to decide it had to be some kind of trick, and then went back to dancing anyway. Her timing was definitely better, though, her footing more certain.

Another girl, though, seemed more on the ball. "If you can make her dance better, can you fix my eyes?"

_**Probably. What've either of you got to lose?** _

"Done," Amy tossed off lightly. "Want to clear up that complexion too?"

The girl laughed. "Yeah, sure, why not?"

Amy snapped her fingers, and gave her a telekinetic goose for effect. Also because she wasn't really that bad-looking.

"Whoa!" "Holy shit!" "Hot damn!"

That was off in Faith's direction. Amy glanced that way. Faith was really letting loose, but Amy wasn't sure she realized that some of her wilder moves were carrying her up the walls. Then she spun, fist thrust up into the air, and levitated straight off the ground.

The crowd, already worked up to a fever pitch, burst out with excited screaming and started grabbing at Faith's clothes.

"Up!" Amy shouted over the roar. Faith must've heard her, because she shot up into the lighting. Where was Harm? She'd gone off on her own almost at once, saying she wasn't sure yet how to be flashy.

Didn't know how to be flashy? Harm was at the center of one of the remaining pockets of relative calm. She wasn't showing off the same sort of wild moves Faith had been, but she definitely had a huge number of eyes on her. Even her outfit wasn't as out of place as Amy'd expected, though Amy doubted she really wanted the goth and emo crowd that was checking her out.

"Harm! We might've overdone it a bit!" Damn it, Harmony couldn't hear her over the roar. Amy started to shoulder her way through the crowd, then realized that dancing might work better. It was just hard to focus amidst the spreading pool of chaos.

"Harmony! We've got to start calming people down!" For the first time in what must have been a while, Harm blinked, looked around her, and realized what was happening.

"I--? Get me to the dj booth?" Of course. If she could speak to the crowd...

"Hey all you scenesters out there! Hipsters, goths, and any remaining old fogies like myself..." Kate! Shit, was she going to warn them about the police showing up? That'd ruin whatever order remained. "I am here to inform you that this is a genuine super-heroic zone. No joking, no lies, this is Mama Bear talking, and I am about to show you what you have never seen before! Take it as special effects if that makes you more comfortable but you _will_ be seeing more of us around the City of Angels!"

It was a terrible speech. And what followed was worse: Kate burst from her faux-silver-fur outfit, swelling in moments into a creature not seen in California for decades, outside a zoo anyway. The grizzly roared and pawed the air before shrinking back into Kate Lockley, clothes impossibly intact.

The crowd screamed with one loud voice. But not in terror. There was an undercurrent of fear to it, but the real tone was a sort of primal excitement. Kate had changed their mood in an instant. And the dancing began again, wilder than ever.

This time, even Kate was swept into it.


	19. Chromatic Aberration

"No, don't...don't stop, Will! Don't...hold back! Give it to me!" Buffy was panting by now, drenched in sweat.

Willow twitched a finger at her. "That's 'Scholar' to you, Shadow. You don't get it until you use the right words."

Tara hung back on the sidelines, watching. Willow and Buffy had been friends long before meeting her, but seeing them like this was painful. She could only hope neither hurt the other too much.

"C'mon, then, Scholar. I need every square inch of my ass kicked and it's your turn." Willow unleashed her lightnings again, burning through Buffy's attempt at defense. Darkness gathered around Buffy like night falling as she struggled to stay on her feet. "Don't stop. Hurt me. Knock me down. We're going to have to fight _me_ , at the strongest I've ever been, and here the two of us are starting from scratch."

"Not quite from scratch," Willow protested weakly.

"We might as well be. Especially me. I'm not even a Dusk or a Dawn anymore, let alone a Slayer. Everything I learn about combat I learn secondhand." Buffy managed to reach a low crouch, and charged at Willow, only to be knocked onto her back with smoke curling from her hair. This time she gave in and lay there.

"That's true," Tara said thoughtfully, "but I have to wonder. You weren't an ideal candidate for Slayer to begin with, right? You were a cheerleader in high school. Maybe this is actually a better fit for you. You might end up more powerful as a Moonshadow than you ever were as a Slayer."

Buffy nodded agreement, struggling to her feet. "I've had the thought. I'm not sure it's progress in the long run--you know, now that I'm expected to destroy the world instead of save it--but maybe I can do something I couldn't have before."

"You always could've destroyed the world, Shadow," Spike said calmly. "You chose not to. Same as me." He gave Angel a smirk.

"The Solars nearly destroyed the world at the end of the First Age," Angel said. "They were the good guys. They were the Sun's perfect, chosen heroes. But they still had free will. So do you."

"Do I?" Buffy wondered. "Does the other me? One moment of weakness and now she's evil forever? What about the rest of us?"

Angel shrugged. "Now you know how I feel."

" _Is_ there any way of getting through to Buffy?" Tara wondered. "Willow moved heaven and earth to restore you, Angel."

"And the end result was that I got sent to hell," the vampire pointed out. "Maybe it's worth trying, and maybe it isn't. We have a good Buffy right here."

"Shadow," Spike said with a laugh, "why ask us? You're the negotiator now, right? Plus, you're her. How would you get through to evil you?"

Buffy lowered her fangs into view. "That's one hell of a question, Spike. I wish I knew if it were the right one."

**Chapter 45: Chromatic Aberration**

"I've seen worse," Siaka said testily. "I don't think I'll ever trust...Buffy the way you do, but I'm not actually sure I see much evidence of what she's doing wrong." The markets were still flowing with gems and other goods, though the people seemed strangely on edge.

Anya nodded. Her suit, though rather dusty, still should seem at its best to most anyone watching. They were a pair of businesspeople setting up shop here, arrived just a week ago. "You're not a thousand years old. Let me tell you about the French Revolution. It started like this one, with poor unhappy peasants and rich nobles who never had to work for their money. So the peasants overthrew the nobles, had them all beheaded, and lived happily ever after. Right?"

"Obviously not or you wouldn't be telling me about it," Siaka said a slight touch of irritation. "So what really happened?"

Anya pointed to a full gallows as they passed. "The people saw threats everywhere by then. A few surviving nobles...the new wealthy merchants...the priesthood...people with personal grudges against them...leaders of the Revolution who were worried about what was happening...and so on. They called that the Reign of Terror, or just the Terror. It didn't end until Napoleon took over and basically made himself the new king. It happened again in Russia, only I was the one who started that one. Revolutions have to be managed just right or they make things worse, not better."

Iron Siaka considered that and asked the obvious question. "Even in the Bureau?"

"Well...yes," Anya said a bit stiffly. "That was a weensy bit different, but you've seen my nose at the grindstone, haven't you? Gold Faction will end up as bad as Bronze Faction got, or get overthrown too, unless we're very careful."

Siaka sighed. "You really are a thousand years old." She tightened her fingers against the ring on her hand. "I may not always agree with you, but you deserve your position."

"Yes," Anya said. It didn't sound like simple, prideful agreement. Siaka peered at her. "I said yes. Work your mojo on me. You were misguided, but you learn. You're not stupid, you're not evil, and I really do like you. A lot."

"And you want to...like me better." Siaka whistled softly.

"And differently. Yeah." Anya grinned. "Don't look so surprised. You're Exalted. The difficult you do at once, and the impossible takes a day or two. Just look at Xander--whom I'm not leaving for you, let's be clear on that."

"You're welcome to him," Siaka said, making a face. Maybe this should be done in private...nah. Anya didn't seem remotely concerned with propriety. Siaka focused on the threads of fate that already tangled her with Anya and gave them another half-twist.

The elder's eyes popped. "Woof," Anya said. Had she screwed something up? "Damn. Buffy can wait another hour or so."

"Nope," Iron Siaka said. "Business before pleasure." And she turned and strolled toward the Despot's palace. Let Anya have to stare at _her_ ass a while.

*****

"Hey," Nelumbo called out. "Who adjusted these controls?"

"Jade Caste," Gathered Might responded through her avatar. "Came through the gate. I didn't recognize her, but she showed her authorization. Transcendent Architect, she called herself. Funny accent."

Nelumbo examined the records. The gate had been activated remotely. Then some of the safeties had been disabled! "She had authorization for this!?"

"Yes ma'am. She claimed maintenance was required. Showed papers with your say-so and Ot's." How could Nelumbo not be aware of this? "Forgery and treason!?"

"It would certainly look that way," Nelumbo said. "But unless she's another Adamant in disguise, how'd she even know I existed...or that Ot does? She was alone?"

"There was a mortal with her," Might suddenly recalled. "He came through the gate with her. I'd forgotten him."

"As she no doubt intended. Damn her eyes! What did she do? This shouldn't be possible! She relocated the exit aperture in less than an hour!"

That should have ruined the gate entirely! "Diagnostics still read as functional," Might said, studying her readings. "Where did they go?"

Nelumbo frowned. "A city in the South...Gem! If this is Xander's doing somehow I'll have his hide, Solar or not!"

*****

"Buffy," Anya said.

"S'posed to kneel," Buffy said with a flick of her fingers. She lounged in the Despot's throne, robed in green silks, wearing brass slippers and an incongruous pair of golden sunglasses, her dress sunk down to show her thighs. Thank fate Siaka hadn't done any more to her...she gave Siaka a poke and a small shove backward.

"I don't kneel to you," Anya said. "I work for Heaven these days. You know. Powers That Be, yadda yadda, Bureau of Destiny and all that."

Buffy sat up and leaned forward, leaving her legs--yipes, more than her legs!--exposed in the process. She noticed Anya's glance and grinned wickedly. "Let me rephrase that. _Kneel._ " Green smoke curled up around the Despot's diadem as the crossed swords flared.

Anya's knees tried to buckle, but with an effort she remained standing. There was a flicker of motion to her left, but when she glanced that way Siaka was on her feet as well.

Buffy pouted. "I thought you were my friend, Anya. I'd hate to have to execute you."

"Then don't," Anya said. Fair was fair, and Buffy definitely knew how to phrase her words to not give a direct order. Using her mental shears, she cut free the web of destiny she had woven and flung it over Buffy, who leapt up.

"What the hell?" Buffy grabbed up her jade daikalbar and made as if to come hurtling down from her dais.

"Now!" Anya shouted, and Iron Siaka grabbed the Dulcet Consolator from its belt loop. As Siaka blocked Buffy's first blow, Anya raised one hand in the Superior Sign of the Corpse.

Buffy turned so suddenly she nearly tripped over her own feet and began to dart for the door behind her throne. Siaka shouted something at Buffy--Anya couldn't make out just what--and the Slayer stiffened for a moment, then broke for the door again.

"Buffy," Anya shouted, "wait!" Buffy kept running. Anya sighed and leapt to the dais, making a snatching motion. Buffy slowed, almost stumbling again, and Anya caught her by the arms. "Listen to me, damn it! We're your friends and we're here to help you! We can take you home!"

Buffy stopped so suddenly that Anya tumbled to the floor. "Home? Now?" And she began to laugh as if she would never stop.

But she didn't run away.

*****

There wasn't anything that the Transcendent Architect liked about this job. She was operating on an alien world. She was working essentially alone. And she was on an assassination mission, something she had done many times before but only ever at great need. Life was precious. But that was why this had to be done.

The Despot--or more likely, one of her clones--moved out onto the balcony, flanked by sycophantic advisors. That was nothing to worry about. Even from her perch on the roof she should have no difficulties.

Transcendent Architect lifted her left hand and steadied it with her right. The thousands of motes that made up her hand shattered, drifting apart into a cloud of light, then reassembled themselves into a weapon unknown here.

The Architect took careful aim and fired.

*****

Something punched through Shadow's left shoulder and slammed her into the wall. For a moment she was incapable of drawing breath. Willow caught her and hauled her around the corner, and Tara scrambled after them.

"Hold still," the Scholar whispered, as if Buffy were capable of doing otherwise. She could breathe again, if shallowly. Willow dug a telekinetic hand deep into her shoulder and extracted a tiny yellow pellet. "Jade," Willow said quizzically. " _Yellow_ jade. Who'd make a bullet out of that? You might as well make it out of diamonds."

"Worry about that later," Shadow wheezed. "Someone's trying to kill me and I don't even know if that makes 'em an enemy or a friend."

Tara sighed. Of course she didn't want to kill anyone. She never did. "I saw them for a second. They were clinging to a tower rooftop. But then they just dissolved into sparklies. And then I thought I'd b-better get under cover."

"We're good," Shadow said. "No point in you getting shot too." She flexed the afflicted limb. "And I'm learning the ropes already." She heaved herself to her feet. 

"Well, you need some offense, B--Shadow," the Scholar said. "Want me to teach you how to throw lightning?"

"Doesn't seem like my style," Shadow mumbled.

"It's up to you," Willow said with a shrug. "Just...keep in mind it's okay to have a different style. Especially now. You're starting all over!"

"You could learn witchcraft," Tara said lightly. "Can't hurt, can it?"

Buffy began making her way painfully out of the area. She waved her hand in the general direction of the throne room. "That's what we decided about her powers too." The pain kept lessening as her nerves went dead.

"It's what we decided," Tara said, "but it's not what she did." She didn't try to stop them from moving, so Buffy let her talk. "She let her powers freak her out, and then she tried to just stop."

"Tara," Willow said, "I don't know if this is the time."

"If this person d-doesn't kill one or both Buffies," Tara said heatedly, "we were p-planning to try. But if she just repeats the same mistakes, what's the use? I can't think of a better t-time!"

"Tara, what--?" Buffy peered around a corner before hurrying on.

"Stop. Listen. You worry about turning evil but you d-don't seem to have any concept of what that is besides 'not human'. So you copied yourself. Nobody was there to talk you through it and you freaked out." Tara followed, seeming to be relying on Buffy and Willow to do her looking out for her. "I understand. It'd give me the wiggins too. But what's evil about it?"

Buffy hurried down a long stone corridor. "It made me more like the Yozis."

"And just as much like Gaia. Or Autochthon, who made the Exaltations in the first place." Tara sounded very, very frustrated. Even desperate. But she had to be wrong. "Who does it hurt or kill? D-does it violate some principle? Tell me what, if you've thought of something. I kn-now the Exalted can be smarter than me, but you can still be wrong!"

"Tara," Willow said placatingly, "surely it can wait?"

"It doesn't matter to me anyway," Buffy said, despairing a little. "I get my powers from the Neverborn now. Are those okay as long as I use them right?"

"I don't know," Tara said as they entered a kitchen. "I would have died first, but you both thought you had something more important to do. Maybe it's worth it."

*****

The Transcendent Architect flattenned her swarm against the wall. Something was wrong here. She remembered that Buffy had been able to duplicate herself, but none of her had been Abyssals. This timeline was already different from the one she had expected to find. She needed more information.

Anya was here somewhere, separate from the others. The Architect examined Tara. No one would suspect Tara of being dangerous.

She rearranged the microspheres that composed her form into Tara's shape and went to seek Anya.

*****

Angel was once again chained up in the darkness. The last part didn't bother him much. Darkness was where he belonged. He wasn't sure anymore what Buffy cared about regarding him these days, not even if it mattered to her whether he lived or died.

The door opened and a small figure entered. One of the neomah...Marzi? They were hard to tell apart, but they wore different ornaments, and he remembered those fairly well. She didn't look healthy; he wished his sense of smell would return. But her skin was dry and cracked, and she was gasping for breath.

"Marzi?" he rasped. He was pretty parched himself.

The neomah seemed to nod, but as she did so there was a faint whispering crack like crumbling mud, and her face began to fall off in chunks that shattered into dust when they hit the ground. Her arms followed, and Angel could only watch in horror as one of the few demons he'd seen try for goodness crumbled to pieces in front of him.

He frowned. A tiny, transparent thing like a jellyfish still squirmed in the wreckage of her body. As he watched, it grew larger, took on color, sprouted arms, legs, a head. Rather quickly, its form became that of a dusty-haired boy in his late teens, dressed in a well-cured leather outfit that resembled chamois.

The boy studied him quizzically. "My name's Steven," he said at last. "Come with me if you want to live."

*****

"I want you to understand," Anya said, "I don't mind if you talk about torturing and killing people. I understand the attraction. You just can't actually do it."

Buffy shrugged. "I don't really care about that," she said. "As long as I'm having fun, I don't care about anything much."

"Well then," Anya said, feeling satisfied. "What do you do for fun?"

"Fucking," Buffy began. "Eating. Having people do exactly what I tell them and hurting them when they don't. Making fools out of anyone who tries to tell me what to--"

"Um," Anya said. "We may have a problem."

As she spoke, suddenly Tara came around the corner in the hall outside. "Anya," she said. "Hey! I got separated from Willow and--"

"Hey," Anya began, and as she did so Tara brought her right hand up, which suddenly wasn't a hand any more, but a distorted gun muzzle, and she began to fire at Buffy.

"Who in the--" Iron Siaka started, and as she did so Buffy leapt from the chair, cartwheeling over her. Buffy's foot came down on a _bullet_ , the stream of which she darted across to kick Tara in the face!

Tara's head jerked back hard enough to break her neck, but all that happened was that her head and neck glowed yellow, sending little yellow spsrks flying. Her fists came up, suddenly bearing yellow knuckle guards, and slammed into Buffy's ankles, but Buffy barely reacted, only leapt on up and over and kept running on the ceiling until she was out of the hall.

Tara spun and dissolved into a cloud of yellow motes. "Damn it!" was all Anya could think to say.

*****

"The Yozis are evil," Buffy insisted.

"But they're not evil just because they're not human," Tara insisted back. "They don't embody it."

"The Ebon Dragon does."

"No," Tara said. She had to get tgis through Buffy's thick skull while she had time. "The one who wants freedom is more evil than the ones who hate it? The one who thinks through what he wants is more evil than the one who just snashes things? The one who just doesn't love is worse than the ones who kill specifically what they do love? The Ebon Dragon is a dick. And trust me," she said, desperately trying for some humor, "I don't care much for those. But he's more complicated than just embodying evil. Until you--especially the other you--understands that she's never going to be all right."

"Why is now the time for this, Tara?" Buffy turned to peer around the corner into the hallway.

"B-because I don't expect to live through this!" Tara finally exploded. "You two probably will, b-but I'm not Exalted, and I'm p-pretty sure I'll die before I get the chance to be! I'm just not enough hero for it. So I'm telling you while I--"

A man in a black suit came running in behind them--no, wait, it was Anya and one of her friends. "Look out!" she yelled. "There's a murderous copy of Tara roaming the palace and she just tried--" Anya halted in mid-sentence. "Oh, good, you're not her."

"Of Tara?" Willow began. "That's--"

Willow slammed into the wall like a ragdoll, and a yellow metal spike pierced Buffy's wounded shoulder. "Not you," the Tara...bot said coolly. "I'm sorry. I can't let you interfere. I've got billions of lives to save."

"How dare you use my face like that?" Tara said without thinking. Wow, she was on a roll today. "Who are you?"

The...Tara-minator considered her for a moment, then seemed to make a decision. "I could use some help," she said. "I'm not used to working alone."

"Then put Buffy down and tell us what's going on!" Willow said angrily.

"You don't know me," the robot said. "But I remember you. I chose my name to help me remember this era. Partly because I knew this mission waa coming, but partly to remember the people who first taught me to be a hero."

"Spit it out already," Anya blurted.

"I'm from your timeline," the creature explained, "but I've lived thousands of lives inside a dying world. My name is Transcendent Architect in Radiant Array."

There was a long quiet moment before Willow gasped.


	20. Disputed Territory

To the rush of an infinite wind, Peleps Kolohi stepped through the gateway. There was a flash of silver light, and the blackened-yet-living vegetation was no more. In its place was a narrow street between tall brick buildings, half-filled at various points with big metal containers of refuse. The buildings were dingy where Luthe had shone, regular and blocky where most towns she had known followed the organic flows of geomancy (if not always well). Yet in material, and in the various objects that cluttered the space (brilliantly-white paper! black refuse bags of a slick substance she had never seen! a boxy, enclosed carriage with a mechanical engine exposed!) it was clearly worlds in advance of every other city she had ever laid eyes on, save only Luthe.

She had stepped into another world. She had stepped into another Age. This might not be the greatest wonder she had seen...but it was up there.

There was Renjin, staring about him in wonder that was surely no greater than her own. And there was Fred, the Dreamer of Reason, whom Kolohi suddenly felt she understood far better. "You're home," Kolohi said. "It's good to see this with you."

"It is good," Fred said. She looked around, seeing the city with new and old eyes at once. "But I'm not home." She smiled at Kolohi, a pleased smile, an excited smile, but she did not kiss the ground or race into a familiar building. "I've been here before."

"Is this Tek-sas?" Renjin asked. "You said you were from a small town, but I'm having trouble judging."

Fred shook her head. "This is Los Anjalis, or Ellay for short."

Renjin scratched his head. "The city is called 'the spirit messengers'?"

Fred blinked, then burst into laughter. "Actually, yes! Ciudad de Los Angeles--the City of Angels! I'm not remembering why right now."

"I will be on the lookout for these angels," Renjin said. "One never knows."

"Remember we're not staying long this time," Fred said. "I want to make sure there's no apocalypse going on, so you have a little time to see the sights, but then we have to go for now."

"We're safe using our powers here?" Kolohi asked. "The Dragonblooded don't rule, correct?"

Fred began to twitch in many different places, most of all her fingers and lips. "Kolohi, mortals rule here. Also there are demons and sorcerors who could notice you."

Was Fred really afraid of them still? True, a city of mortals improperly handled might be trouble, but she and Renjin knew what they were doing. As for mere demons or mortal sorcerors--was she joking? "No Exalted, though?"

"Just Faith," Fred said. "I don't know anything much about her."

"Buffy's successor?" Renjin shrugged. "Even if she's a Solar, it's three on one."

"Excuse me," an unfamiliar voice said. Kolohi looked up to see a woman in strange fur-lined clothing pointing a metal rod at them. "Did you people just make a mystical disturbance in my neighborhood? Because I don't approve of that."

"Mortal?" Kolohi murmured to Fred.

"She must be," Fred said uncertainly.

Kolohi grunted, rolled her eyes, and burst free of her human form, growing bulky and armored. All she had to do waa scare the woman.

"Nice try," the woman said, and erupted into a towering mass of fur and fangs. It wasn't a war form, but it _was_ still a huge bear.

Maybe Kolohi'd made an error of judgement? She heard Fred gulp; she really hadn't known.

This could be a problem.

**Chapter 46--Disputed Territory**

The idea of turning into a grizzly in public, in broad daylight, still left Kate Lockley's insides quivering. This wasn't how supernatural stuff was handled. Only now there was a mutant humanoid turtle standing in front of her. Just maybe she could be mistaken for someone filming a movie?

"Hey!" the slightly-built girl in the jumpsuit shouted, and took hold of the turtle by the arm. "Kolohi, wait. She must be a Lunar too. Can we try and figure out what she wants? She's just defending--"

"Let her defend, then!" The turtle charged.

Maybe it'd have been better to open fire. She was committed to meeting strength with strength now. Well, she wasn't exactly weak. Kate dropped to all fours and barreled forward, sending the turtle flying up and over her back, then swung around as fast as she could to clamp her mouth on the being's--Kolohi's?--leg. She bore down with all the strength in her jaw, tasting the creature's blood, but its hide was extraordinarily tough.

The turtle brought a huge fist down on Kate's back, cracking ribs, but she lunged forward, slamming the monster into a wall, shaking her head for all she was worth, trying to tear something loose. The monster ripped itself free, bleeding profusely but hardly seeming injured. "That your best?" it snarled.

That was a foolish question to ask. Not only could Kate not answer in this form, she honestly had no idea what her best was. If this thing was like her, and thought her effort was lousy, then _she must be capable of more_.

There was a state of mind snipers were said to enter, a kind of cold absolute focus on killing their targets. Kate felt that mindset roll over her now. This time when her jaws closed on the creature's leg, she felt bone crunch. This time when she worried it, the monster toppled.

And then it laughed at her, a laugh that spoke of genuine enjoyment, and Kate wrapped her paws around the turtle-thing and squeezed. The shell held, but Kate felt its pinned arms break.

She bit at its head, but the creature reared up suddenly to stand on the leg she was certain she'd broken moments ago and returned the bite, crushing Kate's left paw. Kate had the disturbing feeling that Kolohi could have severed it and had chosen not to.

It was healing. She needed more power to kill it. Sometimes gun trumped bear; sometimes bear trumped gun. It was too bad she couldn't have b--

Kate felt her hips shift and her thumbs twist. Elements of her costume reappeared, including her holster, with her gun back inside. It fit clumsily against her altered hands, but she could draw and she would be able to fire. "I could tell you to stand down," she growled, "but I'm not in the mood." Ignoring the pain in her other hand, she held Kolohi immobile with her left arm and pressed the revolver to the creature's temple.

"Stop!" the skinny girl shouted, but Kate was in no mood to stop now. She began to squeeze the trigger, but a squid tentacle wrapped around her arm and wrenched it away from the turtle-thing's head. The gun still went off, but the bullet spanged off its shell. The girl had vanished and in her place was a squid-thing straight out of Lovecraft. "Kolohi, that's enough. You've made your point." The squid tried to wrench Kate's gun away, so she fused it into her hand. "Damn it! We didn't come here to fight!" It tangled her further, dragging her away from the turtle-woman.

"Speak for yourself," Kate growled. "You're working for Lilah Morgan, aren't you?"

"What?" The squid-thing began to make a rasping heave. Only after several seconds could Kate identify it as laughter. "Angel Investigations rescued me from Pylea. I don't know a whole lot about Lilah, but I know she's not one of the good guys."

The murderous urge slowly subsided. "Then I have bad news for you."

*****

"Did you seriously do that superhero thing where another hero shows up," Robin asked, "and you fight just because?" Amy snickered.

"We fought because we're Lunars," Kolohi said, "and I was testing whether she was strong enough to defend her territory."

Kate frowned and nodded slowly. "I don't know why that sounds familiar, but it does. You know, I nearly shot you."

"Not as much of a deterrent as you might think," Fred pointed out. "Renjin, why'd you stay out of it?"

"The lady's an obvious Full Moon," he said with a shrug. "I figured I'd leave it between her and the Jade Wave."

"Actually my caste hasn't settled yet," Kate said. "We're not sure if it will. Things have changed."

"If it hasn't settled in a year or so," Fred said, "send for me and someone will come to help fix it."

"You're not staying?" Robin wondered. "I thought you wanted to get home."

"I did," Fred said. "Then I got there. Things have changed. I'm Queen of Luthe, to start with. Anyway, I also have to help deal with Buffy. By the time I figured out how to get back, she'd lost it. She's helping the Yozis--the Old Ones--escape. We have to keep her from destroying the world."

"We've got the same problem with Lilah Morgan at this end," Amy said. "Only there's some other game going on that we don't completely understand."

"She's the one doling out the Exaltations on our side," Kate explained. "We don't know why she doesn't just keep them locked up, because she's having trouble keeping Exalts on her side."

"Why's it so important she win this...election thing?" Kolohi asked. "Why not just attack?"

"She is attacking," Amy said. "She's doing it Fiend-style...um, corrupt Eclipse style," she added, seeing that Renjin and Kolohi looked baffled. "She's using the rules to break the system. If she becomes President she'll be ruler of the most powerful country on Earth, with enough military force it'll probably take the full Exalted host to beat her."

"Maybe not that much," Fred said, "but you guys have barely scratched the surface of what an Exalt can do. You should see what Buffy's capable of by now, and there are elders who can do things she can't imagine yet."

"I can grant wishes," Amy said. "Sam can make a gun shoot fire. Harmony's suddenly a genius."

"All that's just the beginning," Renjin said. "But if you're really working with Five Days' Darkness, he's told you that."

"He did," Kate said. "At least he said we'd keep getting more powerful. He was a little vague about the scope."

"The Exalted were created for the ultimate war," Renjin said. "We keep gaining power the longer we live, and not just in the supernatural sense. I'm sure you were a good peace officer, Kate--a protector of the helpless. That'd fit you being Lunar. But you have the potential to live for thousands of years, and you'll be a lot more than police by the time you reach a hundred."

"Like what?" Kate barked out a laugh. "Queen of California?"

"Don't rule it out," Fred said seriously. "The kind of power Exalted develop if they live long enough is hard not to use. Some end up as master architects or inventors, but that's just another kind of political power. Remember Oppenheimer? 'I am become Death, destroyer of worlds.' Now imagine that he lived thousands of years and kept inventing the whole time."

"Buffy didn't have that kind of influence," Amy argued.

"But she did," Fred explained. "The Slayer held off demonkind for thousands of years. No individual Slayer lived long enough to get really powerful on her own, but they still had an immense impact _against_ change. Without them, Earth would either be long-dead or part of a demon empire. The Slayer line bought humanity time to build new civilizations."

"Now there are a handful of you," Kolohi said. "Even if you try to do nothing but solve supernatural crises, you'll put every mortal investigator and demon hunter out of business, and they're pretty extraordinary themselves, as mortals go. They'll go into other fields--politics, research, the military, whatever."

"And don't think it'll stop with you, either," Renjin said. "Dragon-blooded _breed_. Even if there aren't any men out there, it'll take a good long while before the blood dilutes to nothing. Odds are that someone will release more of the Exaltations, too, even if Lilah decides to stop."

"So Earth is doomed to become a collection of god-empires ruled by petty tyrants?" Kate scowled. "Not going to let that happen."

"I've been told there was a utopia for a few thousand years under the Solars," Fred said. "It went bad eventually, but we can do better this time."

"Also," Renjin pointed out, "don't forget you're part of the problem now."

*****

"So," Fred asked, "what's it like?"

"Incredible," Harmony said. "Incredibly good most of the time. Only sometimes it's incredibly scary. Like, I read _Flowers for Algernon_ for the first time a couple of days before you got here, and I sorta had I think it was an anxiety attack."

Fred nodded. "I can imagine. If it helps, I'm getting smarter too, and as a Lunar I fluctuate a lot more. I can be brilliant at one thing for a little while and then I crash."

Harmony shuddered. "That's got to be totally awful on the downswing."

"Just remember, you're not going to suffer the Algernon-Gordon effect, and you have peers you can interact with. Charlie didn't, and that was a big part of his problems." Fred leaned over to examine Harm's code. "It's nice and clean. I'm impressed. What's it for?"

"I'm serious about going public. I made this to trawl the web for demons and other supernatural stuff so I can collect it in one place." Harmony opened another window. "See this video? It's, like, completely unedited footage of a Fyarl demon, but it keeps getting misidentified as a hoax. I can debunk the real fakers too, so no one thinks I'm just gullible."

"That could be useful," Fred acknowledged. "Have you been able to tie anything to Lilah?"

"Not yet, and we've only got a couple of months. I mean, what if it's too late for this kind of thing?" A third window popped open. "There's Droodzilla leaving the penthouse. I could make a scandal with that, maybe."

"I'm sure you could." Harm definitely didn't realize her own strength socially just yet; she didn't use many psychological terms, but she intuitively understood people on a level that Five Days' Darkness said most new Twilights would have drooled over. "It might not be a good idea, though."

"Wrong kind of backlash." Harmony nodded and clicked the window closed. "Last resort if she looks like she's about to free the Yozis? No, probly too late at that point."

"Are you sure you can convince anyone of this? People in our world usually only believe what they're ready for." Sunnydale syndrome was an extreme example, but there were plenty of other oblivious people in the world.

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence," Harm said a little smugly, and opened another window. This one began with Kolohi and Kate's fight in the alley. "Betcha didn't notice me." The images were clearly taken with a little handheld camera, but they definitely didn't look edited. "We're taking lots of selfie footage. It'll get our foot in the door, even with some of the news still calling us a hoax." Another window seemed to be an interview with Lorne.

"They talk about October surprises for a reason," Fred acknowledged. "This'll be the mother of them."

*****

"These things are everywhere?" Kolohi squeezed a vampire's head in each giant fist till they burst. "There's nothing like this at home."

Faith leapt into the air and high-kicked another pair of them in the face. The golden ring on her forehead had begun to shine, but Five Days' Darkness was right--without trying to hide it, she had a lot more energy to burn. "They're like rats," she said, "only bigger. There aren't as many as it seems like, though. High turnover, and they like to hang out together in big cities and hellmouths."

"So they said you invented a martial art?" Kolohi slammed the heads off the ones Faith had kicked as they stumbled backwards.

"Dude, that wasn't me! I still haven't remembered any of that stuff." She owed Five two services, and maybe more for his help here, or at least he said she did, but she still hadn't remembered anything about Shadow's Grace except a few bits and pieces of stabbing people.

"Of course it was you," Kolohi said, sounding confused. "It'll come back to you in time."

Faith shrugged. "If I remember I remember. That was a long time ago. I've got bigger worries these days, like Kate's water bill."

"I don't know why you don't just take what you want," Kolohi said. "You're a Prince of the Earth. The world belongs to you--especially to you, since you're a Solar."

Faith did the only thing she could do. She busted a gut laughing. "I did that for a year. Even my Watcher said it was fine, as long as I didn't attract too much attention. I ended up working for the guy trying to turn into an Old One. I've been on the wagon for less than a year now, you know."

Kolohi scratched her massive head. "I don't understand this world, Faith. But I promise, it's better because you're here to fight for it."

Faith offered a high five that Kolohi took a few seconds to understand and return. "We're five by five, then. C'mon, let's patrol a while longer."

"Good with me," Kolohi rumbled. "I hope I get to work with you again."

*****

"You don't seem as powerful as the others," Amy said to Renjin, floating their plates over.

"You're looking at the wrong things," Renjin said. "Hey, is this a taco? Fred made these in Luthe!" He took a bite. "Not bad. Anyway, you could use more of the kind of social power I use. When I tell people what to do, they do it. You could ruin Lilah's whole strategy that way."

"Sounds like cheating," Amy said. "How do I learn it? Better than letting Lilah Morgan run the planet."

"I don't know," Renjin said. "You're not a Lunar, or any kind of Exalt I'm familiar with really. But you have some kind of powers in that direction you can learn. All Exalted do. Ask Five Days' Darkness about it."

"I'm on it," Amy agreed. "Maybe you should hang around and help us."

"I might," Renjin said. "It won't do much good to stop Lilah here if the Yozis get free at home."

"True." Amy focused on her telekinesis. It felt as if she could use it on a deep enough level to do things like make fire, but she hadn't succeeded yet. She floated her drink up to her mouth as if it were in a straw. Some people said you shouldn't use magic that way, but she was practicing, not just screwing around. That was different, right? "What _kinds_ of things can you do?"

"Well, let's say I go out and make a speech. I can make people afraid of something--say, an invasion--or make them want things, like foreign food. That might not sound like much, but it's not a hit-and-miss thing. I can go out on the street right now and scare people about a foreign invasion, and I don't even know who your neighbors are."

"So it works every time?" Amy frowned. That sounded like mind control, and she drew...well, a dotted line there, anyway. If it stopped Lilah....

"Eh...maybe nine out of ten, instead of three out of ten. It's not just completely perfect." Renjin blushed a little, embarrassed that it wasn't. Not that he could tell people what to think and make them think it.

Well...maybe she shouldn't be either.

*****

"It's weird working with Dragon-Blooded," Fred explained. "It's got to be even weirder for Renjin and Kolohi. Not that I'm complaining," she added as Sam incinerated a vampire with one bullet.

"It's weird being told that I'm not quite human any more," Sam countered, "but being around Lunars helps."

"That's fair," Fred agreed. "Maybe it'll help Buffy too. Hang on." She raised her hands and began to chant.

Sam shrugged and continued plugging the vampires with gunfire. There were a lot of them, but it was one hit, one kill, and they weren't adapting very well. "You seem like a sciencey type. Is that magic?"

Fred's aura flared silver over shadow, and a line of barbed razor wire accreted out of thin air and hurled itself, spinning, at the necks of the largest group of vampires. "Yup. But sufficiently-analyzed magic is indistinguishable from technology."

Sam smiled grimly. "Can I do it too?"

"Takes practice, but I think so. Battle sorcery's a high art in Creation. No reason it can't be here too...other than the usual problems with bottles and genies." Fred sprouted a pair of insectile legs and scurried up a wall to catch an escaping vampire.

"From what you people and Five Days' Darkness say, that shit's already hit the fan...to completely mix up the metaphor there."

Fred let out a heavy sigh as she dropped back to the ground. "Probably. Exaltations were meant to make humans able to fight Primordials. Nukes do more _guaranteed_ damage, but we're each more powerful now than an ICBM, in our own ways. Of course, there _is_ a bottle, if we want to try using it."

Sam scowled. "Just so you know, I'm taking that under advisement."

*****

"Verbal passcode required."

"Not dead," Warren intoned, "nor not of the living." This mystical stuff was all a crock. It was a matter of science and being in the proper mindset, nothing more. Ignorant people talked about demons when it was obvious this was just the resolution of the Fermi paradox: the aliens had always been here.

Of course, having his skin back would've been nice.

"Very interesting," Weeping Raiton Cast Aside said, examining the computer screens. "What does it say?"

Warren shrugged. What did it matter what some other-dimensional primitive thought? He read off the text. A little joke on his part. "SKYNET operating system online and ready for distribution. How may I be of assistance, Mr. Mears?"

"Sky...net?" Weeping Raiton peered at him as if his face would reveal the secret. But the Master must have been more savvy than he looked. He began to giggle.

By the time his laughter died down, an hour later, Warren was really, really annoyed.


	21. Gem's Exploding; Must Be Tuesday

Tara stepped forward, trying not to stumble, and faced her double. "Are you saying you're...me?"

"That's for the metaphysicians to argue about," TARA said. "I remember your life...mostly. But I also remember countless lives between yours and mine. It takes many heroic incarnations to make an Alchemical Exalted." Her form dissolved into flying specks of light again, resolving once more into a golden-skinned, more-or-less feminine humanoid. There were echoes of Tara in her features, but only echoes. "I've been many things--male and female, gay and straight, a wealthy Estasian and a tunnel rat. I've seen Autochthonian culture fall and then rise again. I remember you clearly, Tara, and I'm you...but in many ways, we're very different people." She stepped up to Tara and kissed her, first on the lips, then the forehead. Then she turned to Willow and reversed the gesture. "I will always love you, but that love has been on the shelf for a very long time. I don't think we will have the chance to rekindle old flames, but who knows? In any case, I won't intrude if either of you doesn't want me."

"That's very sweet," Anya said flatly. "But seriously--why are you here?"

"I remember Buffy almost as fondly as Willow," TARA said, "but she's about to make a horrible mistake that will doom Creation. Your timeline isn't exactly mine, but the key events have taken place. Soon, very soon, Buffy will be in a position to bring about the Ebon Dragon's death, touch off the Yozi War, and destroy the fundamental principles that hold existence together."

"How do you know?" Willow asked. Tara could see in her eyes that Willow already knew the answer to that.

"I lived it," TARA said simply. "I watched Creation die. I saw an evacuation of hundreds of millions, and the death of billions. Nothing I do here will change my past, but if I could stand by and watch it happen again when I have the power to change it," and here she glanced at her past self, "I wouldn't be _her_."

"And you don't want anything in exchange?" Anya asked, pressing the issue.

"Autochthon is always sick," TARA explained. "It's part of his fundamental nature as a Primordial, but sometimes he's merely out of shape...and sometimes he comes close to death. Right now he's being healed by the efforts of Thousand-Faceted Nelumbo and others, but the cycle will continue. In our time he's deathly ill again. We need one of his creations to heal him this time, but it's been lost for millennia. Here I may be able to locate it, and I will take any help I can get."

"What happens if he dies?" Shadow wondered.

"Then," TARA said sternly, "Gaia will be left alone, the last surviving Primordial, against her undead brothers and sisters, and she will die too, and everything we know will fall into Oblivion."

"Okay then," Shadow said resignedly. "Once more into the breach."

TARA shook her head. "Wrong poem. 'Stormed at with shot and shell/Boldly they rode, and well/Into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell.'"

"Is that supposed to make us feel better?" Iron Siaka asked. "That sounds like the sort of story that ends badly."

"Nah," Shadow said. "Don't worry. She's just telling me I've been there before."

**Chapter 47--Gem's Exploding; Must Be Tuesday**

Dawn strolled along the street, enjoying the stares. She wasn't obviously nonhuman enough to frighten people, but she cut a striking figure in shining armor. It was all illusory, of course. Her real armor was hidden. One hand stroked the older, purring, Miss Kitty Fantastico she held in her arms.

When this was done with, she'd take another round-the-Wyld shortcut and go see Xander. He couldn't think of her as a little girl anymore. She was older than that ex-demon jerkass, and now she _remembered_ \--well, in fragments anyway.

Most of the people looked okay, but she could feel the ambient shifting paranoia like a cool silk cloth being pulled along her body. It was all directed at the palace. What had Buffy done? Dawn turned a corner and nearly collided with a guard patrol.

"Scuse me, young ladies. You get them fat purses from honest trade, or from your mommies and daddies?" The leader leaned in closer, leering. "These days Gem has a tax on...nobles. Some say it costs an arm and a leg." He winked. "But actually, it's more of a poll tax. If you catch my meaning."

Glory's nose wrinkled, and she started to raise a fist. "Made it all ourselves," Dawn said hastily. "Say, are you trying to intimidate us? Because honestly, you're about as intimidating as a wet noodle."

The man's face darkened further, and he lifted a cudgel. "Get 'em, boys!"

The other "tax-collectors" glanced at Dawn, who shrugged and drew her short sword, then back at their leader, then at Dawn and Glory again. Then they collectively shook their heads and wandered off to seek softer targets. "Hey! Get back here!" The former leader chased after them, trying to enforce his authority through his usual threats and displays, only to be soundly ignored.

"Nicely done," Glory said approvingly. "But save your reserves. You've got an Exalt to confront, and it won't be this easy."

*****

Now it was Buffy in the panic room. Rankar hadn't managed long in here against one Exalt, but he hadn't been one himself. She just needed a little while to recover. Anya had shaken her up, and badly, with a single gesture, but everything had its cost. She couldn't keep doing that over and over.

If she forced the issue, Buffy would kill her. She didn't like Anya _that_ much.

At least she had her kingdom. There was a growing tinge of fear mixed into the devotion, but hadn't someone said it was better to be feared than loved? Machiavelli, she thought. Soon enough she'd have her composure back.

How had she reached this point? She remembered caring about things like courage and self-control, but really, they'd held her back from her potential. She ought to be more powerful without those things...not cowering in a bunker. Anya of all people ought to understand. Why attack her?

She'd made Gem a better place to live, hadn't she? She wasn't obligated to do that. All she was really obligated to do was stand against--

Hmm. No. Coordinate the Southern theater of the Reclamation. It wasn't what past Slayers had done, but really, all that had been a mistake. A long, long waste of time on something that was completely hypocritical and couldn't be accomplished anyway.

And seriously, bunkers aside...this was a lot more fun.

*****

"Let's take stock," Anya said. TARA remembered not liking her very much, but perhaps that had been a mistake. Certainly she seemed competent. "Buffy is inside Fate, and psychologically we have her on the ropes. She still has most of her raw power, and the palace is crawling with bodyguards, some of them Terrestrial Exalts she's recruited. What have we got?"

"Tara is an accomplished Terrestrial sorceress," TARA said. Had she really been such a fragile, timid thing? "That's far from negligible, but she has to be conserved. Willow is a Celestial sorceress, but her charm magics are still a bit limited...correct?"

"I can throw lightning," Willow said. "And I can take a fair amount of punishment, but...not on Buffy's level of damage, right?"

"Definitely not," Shadow agreed. "And I've barely started learning."

"Some of that will come with experience," Iron Siaka said. "We always made sure to take out Anathema early, before they got too strong. Sometimes the first battle was one too many."

"You haven't even been initiated into necromancy, have you, Willow?" Willow shook her head, to TARA's relief. "Iron Siaka is a powerful warrior, and Anya seems to be shaping up nicely as an elder, though I'd guess she still has a way to go to catch up." Anya nodded. "Finally there's me. You've seen very little of what I can do, and nothing at all of protocol weaving." Tara gave her a curious look but said nothing, so TARA didn't explain. "Do we have any other assets?"

"Angel and Spike are here in the palace, if we can free them." Shadow rubbed her hands together thinking of them, as if trying to clean herself.

"Xander, some more Sidereal assassins, and a Luthan army can show up at a moment's notice," Anya said. "Fred's still working on the portal home the last I heard. Weylan and Yudani are accomplished members of the Wyld Hunt. I had them try and find a hotel because I meant to reason with Buffy first."

"You need to be prepared to kill Buffy," TARA warned them. "Help her if you can, but you _must not_ let her release the Yozis."

"If she's still against the Yozis," Iron Siaka asked, "why would she release them?"

TARA hadn't wanted to explain this part just yet. At least she hadn't been maneuvered into telling them about Abaddon. "Buffy doesn't have the power to destroy the Yozis by herself. She needs help, and lots of it. I don't know if your Buffy has formulated a plan yet, but in my timeline she realized that the Ebon Dragon would betray the others. So she undid some of his modifications to the geomancy of the plan, freeing the other Yozis a short time after him."

"They turned on him," Shadow realized. "They beat him within an inch of his life, and then she took the last inch."

TARA nodded. "That left the other Yozis free, but wounded in the fight. By that time, though, the rest of the Exalted host had arrived. The escapees reswore their surrender oaths, with the intent of surviving to try again. But they no longer trusted each other, and soon they were at each other's throats."

"You stayed in Creation?" Tara wondered.

"Buffy's plan, and then the death of even one more Primordial, caused a wave of disasters, and we all chose to stay and help." TARA closed her eyes. "I don't remember how you all died, except that Willow was killed by a Scourge named Captain Gyrfalcon in revenge for something or other. And I'm glad I don't."

"Surely Buffy couldn't have slain the Ebon Dragon, not really," Iron Siaka scoffed. "I've fought her myself."

"You lost, badly, three on one," Anya reminded her. "Buffy's always been exactly as resourceful as she needed to be. If killing the Ebon Dragon required taking over the Imperial Manse and the Last Supplicant at the same time, she'd find a way. It's what she does."

"Nobody ever defeats Buffy except herself," TARA reminisced. "The girl has issues."

Hollow booms echoed suddenly through the palace, and everyone except TARA jumped. "What the hell?" Iron Siaka asked.

TARA sighed. "Buffy's Lunar mate," she said. "I've been expecting him."

"Who's her mate?" Willow asked.

TARA shook her head. "Ma-Ha-Suchi."

*****

Dawn slid past Buffy's guards as essily as if the palace had been empty. "I told you there was no need for violence just yet."

"Of course there's no _need_ ," Glory scoffed. "I'm just in the mood."

But frustratingly, Buffy's throne room was blockaded because it actually was empty. Apparently Anya had been by to visit already and caused some sort of trouble. "Ugh. Probably waltzed in and started offering her services in exchange for money."

"So Gem is in disarray, with its ruler missing?" Glory smiled. "Hey guys," she shouted over her shoulder. "Dinner's on!"

Raksha began to accrete out of the shadows. Dawn jumped. How had she missed them all?

"Dawn, kiddo, c'mon," Glory urged. "It's an all-you-can-eat buffet!"

Outside, Dawn heard the whump of catapults being fired and the separate boom of hellfire cannons. Glory must have led in Fair Folk by the score! And whatever she was saying now, she must have thought Dawn might object, or she wouldn't have hidden them.

Maybe she _should_ object?

*****

Stephen led the vampires out of the dungeon. His teeth itched to close around their throats, but it wasn't time for that yet. If what the Architect said was true, Ma-Ha-Suchi was coming, a near-mindless force of destruction who would feed on Buffy and grow more powerful yet. That was the one scenario, she'd told him, in which Buffy's death might be worse than her survival.

His goal was to lure the beast away with the taste of another sort of beast. Ma-Ha-Suchi had glutted himself on the heart's blood of almost every creature in this Creation, but there was a creature it did not yet know.

"Thing is, Angel...you're my dad. And Darla is my mom."

Angel stared at him. "That's impossible!"

"Look around, you bloody git!" Spike snickered. "What about all this isn't impossible?"

"He's got a point, Dad." His father was a man of God, Daniel Holtz...but his body came from this monster. "There was a special prophecy about me. Yes, I'm impossible...but I'm here."

Stephen came to a high-arched exit from the palace, which for some reason stood unguarded. "I need to scout ahead, Dad." He dropped to all fours, taking spirit form, and loped away as a coyote, sniffing. There--the wolf-goat-men were coming over the crater wall to the northeast. The other Lunar couldn't be far away. There was some disturbance to the south as well. It must be the beastmen; they were cannier than he'd figured. He spun and returned to Angel. "City's under attack. I don't know what you think about Buffy at this point, but I'm gonna need some help out here."

"Dunno what you've got in mind, boy," Spike grumbled, "but Big Hair an' me are pretty tapped out. Neither've us can just go feed, an' that business sounds ugly."

Damn it! Everything Father and the Architect had said implied that Angel, at least, would leap into battle no matter how exhausted. But the tall vampire was nodding at Spike's words.

"Those things out there smell at least half animal, if you ask me. Sure you can't feed on them?" It was worth a shot.

"I'll make the attempt," Angel wheezed. "No promises."

There.

*****

"Ma-Ha-Suchi is dangerously insane," TARA said, "in a way that can't be cured in this life. At least, we still haven't found a way after thousands of years. His powers grow from devouring his mate, but so do his mental problems. Fortunately, he's weak and should go down like a chump."

"One of these things is not like the other," Shadow observed.

"You've seen through my clever deception," TARA deadpanned. It was good, really really good, seeing these people again. "Fortunately, we know how to deal with apocalypses?"

"Better," the Hanged Scholar said, smiling. She was coping fairly well with TARA's arrival.

"Ma-Ha-Suchi is a shapeshifting monster who even retains some of his social-fu," TARA said. "If he consumes Buffy's heart's blood, he'll have raw power on the level of some of the most powerful beings in existence. He's already nigh-unbeatable. Unfortunately, letting him defeat Buffy is one of the few outcomes on the same scale of badness as letting Buffy slay the Ebon Dragon. The Yozis and their minions are still hard at work trying to make hell in Creation. Nobody needs the distraction."

"So how do we show him his insect reflection?" her younger self asked.

"I may regret this," TARA said, "but right now Anya, Iron Siaka, and I are our heaviest hitters. Shadow and Scholar, you two run interference and try not to engage him directly. Tara...you need to fetch Weylan and Yudani, then Xander and his army. The swift rider will help. I'm sorry to send you away from Willow."

"What about his armies?" Iron Siaka asked.

"We'll have to hope Gem's military can hold them for now," TARA said reluctantly. "Unless you know some army-scale magicks I don't."

Everyone stared at each other. "Maybe I can help a little," Willow said. "What about Buffy?"

"We need her lured out to fight the invasion," TARA said, "but not Ma-Ha-Suchi, not if we can help it. Too risky."

"I'm on it," Shadow said.

"If you're sure," TARA said uneasily. She couldn't be _absolutely_ certain it wasn't this Buffy who'd strike the death blow, depite her current weakness. The Exalted were like that...and Buffy in particular.

*****

Dawn spun laughing through the streets of Gem, glutted on the cherished beliefs and convictions of others. "Most delicious thing ever, right this way!" she shouted, driving her blade into a fleeing foe's back. Delighted Fair Folk twirled in her wake.

She sank her hands knuckle-deep into the head of yet another of the howling beast-men and drank deep, leaving him stumbling, confused, through the city. She couldn't make the other raksha follow her, but the animal-people's deranged dreams of conquest were much tastier, for most, than mundane domestic life.

Glory raced after her, a little puzzled but definitely seeing the point...well, the point most raksha would see. Pockets of guards appeared, and Dawn did her best to take out the wild people they were fighting. So far Glory was helping, but there was the danger that she'd grow bored and turn on the guards.

She couldn't let that happen.

*****

It felt like running away.

Surely taking off away from Gem on a hovercraft was enough to end her chances of being an Exalt in this life. Tara was okay with that. It was too much power for any one person to have. She didn't judge her future self for it--weird thought--but who knew what she'd been through?

Anyway, she was doing her job. Tara was willing to fight, when she had to, to help others, but glory didn't come into it. Getting Xander and his army would help more than any mediocre fighting skills she had. Sure, they might be too late, but if she stayed they'd never arrive.

She wasn't a hero. She helped. She stayed in the background, and if she had to fight people forgot about it. She was a little like Xander that--

No. That wasn't the same thing at all. She wasn't the cavalry, just going to get it so the real heroes could save the day. She wasn't running; she wasn't fighting, either. Just doing her part.

Tara laid her left hand on the engine and fed it power. One way or another, she'd make it in time.

*****

"Your ladyship!" Faint thumps on the rock wall. She didn't want to hear it. "The city is under attack!" Of course it was. Her entire reign so far had been a series of attacks, and she was tired of it. She just wanted to lie back and enjoy life's little luxuries. Not that there were that many in here. "Raksha and Wyld beastmen have penetrated our outer defenses! Please, my lady!"

 _ **The whole offensive could stall right here.**_ There was that nagging voice in her head again, reminding her that she couldn't do much for the Reclamation if Gem fell. Well, what did she care? _**All our diversions...gone. Well, if that's how you like it....**_ No fair. The thing was an animal. It wasn't smart enough to learn her weaknesses.

Buffy rose from her couch. She hadn't had a good adrenaline rush in weeks. She left the panic room at a run and shot out the window and up a wall. Where was the leader? She'd have him for breakfast. There. A low spot in the walls, and wolfmen climbing over. Must have been made during Mnemon's attack.

Let them come. Buffy felt energized, though not in the out-of-control way she had before her last visit to Malfeas. She had maybe one or two new tricks to pull out of her hat, no more, but her powers burned stronger and under better control. Brass sheathed her skin, and she blazed with light. She used the less-controlled energies deliberately, letting it spill over into an aura of fear, and burst upward, growing to her full twenty-foot height. Her eyes flared green as she dropped to her knuckles and loped forward at full speed, leaping rooftops as she charged. The radeken's image flared over her as she ran.

"Hey, dog-breath!" Assume the leader could hear her; if he couldn't at least she felt better. "Does one half of you try to eat the other?" Goat-wolf-men? What were these things?

In response she heard a distant howl.

*****

The hunger heard her taunt and pricked his ears up. _Hunt her/fuck her/eat her/be her_ She was coming. She was his. She was weak.

He would eat her alive and screaming.

*****

"Goddess damn it!"

Buffy was headed straight for Ma-Ha-Suchi.

TARA deployed her rocket boosters and launched herself into the air, toward battle.


	22. Mad Max: Furry Road

"Yiiii--!"

"Is that a battle cry?" TARA asked Anya, who had just been yanked off her feet and was now dangling by the wrists from TARA's grasp.

"That's an I-wasn't-expecting-to-be-grabbed yelp!" Anya retorted.

They were rocketing through the air at an incredible speed toward the huge mass of beastmen pouring over the damaged area of Gem's walls. Not quite parallel to them, a fully hulked-out Buffy was leaping across Gem's roofs, not even disturbing the tile and adobe of the poorer buildings despite her immense bulk. And ahead of them....

Ma-Ha-Suchi. It had to be him, growing even as they approached, swelling into a monstrous creature that might have been a tyrannosaur--except that its body was covered in writhing tentacles. It bellowed out a roar like a peal of thunder.

"The Exalted of old fought beasts that made these mountains look like ants," TARA said, trying to be helpful. "This bad copy of a tyrant lizard is nothing, really."

"Thank you for the reassurance," Anya muttered. "For all I know he'll turn into one of those any moment. Why is he covered in tentacles?"

"Symptom of his damaged Exaltation," TARA said sadly. "It won't come back if we kill him, not unless the next incarnation stays in the Wyld too long too, but there's no other cure. If it makes you queasy, think of something soothing. Green grass with flowers, sunny days, cheerful bunnies...."

Was that her idea of a joke? Truthfully, the tentacles just made Anya think of sex--not a good thing in this context, unfortunately. But bunnies? "Bunnies," Anya said grimly, steeling herself for the fight. "Floppy...hoppy...bunnies."

**Chapter 48--Mad Max: Furry Road**

Buffy ignored the animal people, which at her size wasn't healthy for them anyway. Her great brass feet pounded them into the ground as she charged.

This guy was clearly the ringleader, this creature swelling into a hybrid of T-rex and movie-monster Thing. Demon? Raksha? She wasn't sure, but she knew size mattered not. Well...not necessarily at least. She could be just as strong at five feet as she could at twenty, but this was a lot more consistent.

Buffy leapt into the air as she closed with the monster. This was her city. She'd taken it from Rankar, defended it against Mnemon and monsters, and she wasn't going to let some two-bit dinosaur freak and his hairy hordes take it away from her now. It was bigger than her, but only just by the right amount. Buffy came down atop its back, wrestling, pummeling, twisting until she was astride the thing. Its tendrils seeped acid that corroded her brass skin, but the verdigris only flaked away to reveal more brass.

Then it twisted beneath her, sank its dagger teeth into her shoulder, and flung her off into the mountainside.

*****

"Ouch," Anya said, wincing.

"She's not even hurt," TARA said dismissively. "I know it's an instinctive response. All he did was break loose."

"Did she beat him without you in your timeline?" Anya couldn't see how. In spite of his evident difficulties controlling his form on a small scale, the Lunar elder seemed able to make his body into anything he wanted. Against that, Buffy's display of speed and brute force seemed feeble weapons.

"She did," TARA said with grudging admiration. "So far she's doing the right thing, in principle. Always make the fight go long when you're up against a Lunar. They can't sustain the exertion. Trouble is that Ma-Ha-Suchi's got enough of an advantage that it won't matter much. He has more raw power to burn."

"Well, what'd she do, then?"

"I wasn't here," TARA said. "But you were." And she let go of Anya's hands.

*****

"The hell with this," Spike growled, and ducked back inside. Angel followed--reluctantly, but fast.

"What the hell?" Stephen asked. "You're just going to let them overrun the city? You don't want a fight?"

"I'm itching for a good fight," Spike insisted, "but I'm not going out there in these robes in the sun on an empty stomach. Buffy had a shipment of weapons she still hasn't delivered, an' I intend to find out what she's got."

"That's a plan," Angel acknowledged. "This place makes most hell dimensions look tame. I won't let the city go without a fight, but I mean to fight smart."

"An' I mean to fight dirty," Spike added.

Stephen scowled at their backs, but followed. He'd have to kill them some other way...and, hell dimension or not, this city was full of humans. They did need saving.

*****

The idea that Anya could do anything to help Buffy suddenly felt like a joke, now that she was a couple of yards away from stinking dinosaur pseudoflesh that writhed with insane motion beneath...and frequently above...the skin. She was suddenly a mortal again, freshly stripped of her demonic powers, not having regained her old magics, and she was facing a monster. She didn't want to die.

Her ancestors were laughing at her. She'd stopped believing in Valhalla centuries ago...but then, hadn't she met the Norns in person? If the shining city of Heaven was in some sense real...but the chain of rationalization failed her there. Yu-Shan held no Odinn and no Einherjar, only a Games-addled sun god and a meaningless bureaucracy. Her once and future master, D'Hoffryn, was a pawn of greater powers, still trapped in Malfeas. Her ancestors weren't even born yet in this timeline--and if they ever were, they would drop into Hel's hall at death as it seemed everyone did. Oh, there were those who went into Lethe and forgot everything they'd ever been, but what sort of an ending was that?

A clawed tentacle lashed out at her bare arm and missed as she hurled herself aside. She was up against a thing as big as a jotun. That, at least was like the old stories, where even the gods faced impossible odds. Sometimes they came out on top and created the world. Sometimes they lost, and it ended forever. She was doomed to lose. Just like the gods.

One day the gods would face this too--would die knowing it had been for nothing, that the shining glorious moment of the world would be forgotten, without even songs to be sung, for there would be none to sing them. The gods would die. But they would die fighting...and why not, if the only alternative was to die sniveling and cowering in a corner? You died either way.

Anya resolved to die like a god. She raised her fists and took up her shears. She was an agent of the Norns. The gods were yet unborn, the prophecies yet unspoken, the world she knew yet unmade. And...though once spoken a doom was sealed...if it had yet to be sealed...could she speak it differently?

The world realigned. Before Odinn was born, Anyanka had already been. When the Norns spoke they spoke with her voice. The Doom of the Gods was hers to weave as she willed. Valhall waited for her to build it...or Arashmahar, if she preferred. She was Exalted.

She struck the edge of her open hand against Ma-Ha-Suchi's knee, and the monster stumbled and slid. It was more than his flesh that she had wounded; she had staggered his self-righteous certainty that civilization existed to be destroyed, though only for an instant. He was too far gone for reason; he was powerful almost beyond injury. But perhaps she needed neither?

A gush of stinking breath covered her, and his immense teeth closed on her waist.

*****

TARA slammed full-tilt into Ma-Ha-Suchi's gut and blasted straight through in a mass of tentacles. Flesh held no terror for her. Anya went flying, likely unharmed or nearly so.

TARA landed, taking on the form of the girl Buffy knew, minus the scales. Not for her own benefit, but for Buffy's. Ma-Ha-Suchi was gone beyond reaching; Buffy might not be, and the shape of Tara might help her. Most of the Scoobies she remembered had little self-control, and their concern for others was wrapped up in trying to save the whole world; Tara had been the exception.

Emitters wove themselves into being on her shoulders, and a shockwave slammed into the monster. She'd reconfigured herself for this one mission, knowing she had combat ahead above what she'd known in any life before. The toroid of force also slammed into her friends, but they were down already. To her frustration, Ma-Ha-Suchi remained standing, battered but unbowed. She needed to break away, pull back and weave more elaborate magicks.

Ma-Ha-Suchi roared and shrank, melting into something that resembled his horned-and-hooved wolf war form, though rubbery tendrils still writhed where his fur should be. She wasn't going to get that time. The mad thing lunged at her, growling, clawing, and mouths opened in his palms.

TARA dissolved into motes of light on the breeze. Not quite fast enough--the monster's hands mangled some of her outer skin--but fast enough to leave him gaping, fast enough to escape serious damage. The others would buy her a few moments to weave.

*****

Buffy staggered to her feet, slamming fists down on scrambling beastmen as she did. Some of her friends were taking on the beast--Anya...and was that Tara? Couldn't be; Tara didn't look like that any more. Or have cyborg parts.

The creature shrank back down to near human size. Should she...? No. Better to keep the advantages she had. Buffy balled her hand up into a massive fist and brought it down on the monster. "What the hell are you? Predator? Prey? Make up your mind!"

And he caught it. With visible effort, but he caught a fist as big as his torso and shoved it away. Was she even able to hurt this guy? Could any of them?

If she'd spent her time repairing the defenses destroyed by Mnemon, creating new ones...not indulging herself and her whims. No. She'd done her time. She deserved a break! She deserved better than to spend the rest of her life fighting off enemies.

Black lightning curled around, carving through wolfmen and lashing out at the big monster. Willow was here too, taking up slack while the others caught their breaths. And...was that one of her doubles? They didn't have powers! But one of them seemed to have taken up the Scythe she'd forgotten and was wielding it awkwardly against the goatmen. (It was hard to tell whether the creatures were either or both at once.) Spikes and dust erupted across the battlefield. Even her bodyguard were in on the action. They were making her look bad. Her image mattered.

Buffy charged the monster and began to pelt him with punches and kicks, any one of which could have smashed a vampire into dust on the ground. The beast caught them, one after another...and Anya caught him in the back with a vicious kick. "Killstealer!" Buffy wasn't sure how seriously she meant that, but the creature's eyes rolled about as if that one kick had shaken him when Buffy's blows had done nothing.

"We're on your side!" Anya yelled back. Never mind that she'd made it more than clear who she was working for now, and Heaven definitely didn't care about anything but what kind of Exalted she was. Buffy couldn't afford to turn on her now, but after Gem was safe? Yup.

*****

"These things are what from where?" Angel always was a bit slow on the uptake.

"Gunzosha armor smuggled from Lookshy," Spike repeated as he struggled into the boots. "S'posed to've gone to An-Teng, but Buffy's been too busy screwing around. Thought you were the detective type now?"

Angel shrugged. "I've been a little...distracted."

"And I haven't?" Spike chuckled as he fastened the chestplate on. "This stuff's s'posed to let a mortal go toe-to-toe with Dragonblooded. Well, we aren't exactly mortal, now are we?"

Srephen waited impatiently to one side. He might be right that as a Lunar, this armor would just get in his way, but he didn't seem to want them wearing it either. Most of his glares were directed at the Poofter, but aside from the obvious Spike couldn't guess why.

"How's this stuff fit both of us?" Angel asked as he shoved his head into the helmet.

"Weren'tcha listenin'?" Spike responded. "Magic."

*****

Anya dropped back to take potshots with her bow as TARA strolled forward. A flock of tiny diamond shuriken solidified from the glowing flecks that surrounded her. Now that was a neat trick. Maybe she could learn it. She still missed the flashy stuff.

Ma-Ha-Suchi laughed deep in his throat, knowing and contemptuous. He threw a punch at TARA.

The shuriken churned around the mad Lunar's fist like a rotary saw and gnawed it down into a bloody nub. Ma-Ha-Suchi stared at it for a long moment as if finally encountering something he couldn't quite comprehend. Then the pumping spurts of blood solidified into tendrils, the tendrils knit together into a new hand, and Ma-Ha-Suchi laughed again. Triumphantly.

"Cavemen," Anya heard TARA mutter. "Of course the cavemen win."

Anya's arrows pierced Ma-Ha-Suchi's eyes and put them out, left then right. His face churned and sprouted new eyes.

A low rumbling scream pierced through Anya's ears. Sparks flew from Buffy, firefly motes from TARA as her form briefly became solid jade, and Ma-Ha-Suchi clamped his hands over his ears and shuddered. Cuts sliced through his body like cracks in glass...then healed. Was there no end to his energy?

Anya sheathed her powerbow in the quiver and darted forward. Her punches and kicks peppered the madman in the chest and gut. A silvery crescent came to life on his forehead. His power wasn't completely inexhaustible, at least. She was already glowing violet, though, and Siaka blue. TARA was shining a brilliant yellow. Only Buffy had just a caste mark showing, and she seemed to be fiddling with her energy expenditures for effect. Anya took a moment to mentally applaud her budgetary acumen and kept punching.

Ma-Ha-Suchi seized her by the throat and lifted her off the ground. No fair! That was friggin' comic book biophysics! He gave a toothy grin and smashed her against his chest...and into it.

Everything went black.

*****

Buffy shrank back down almost to her normal height, though she kept the hunched cave-Buffy posture that went with Infernal Monster Form for her; her hair sprouted to forty feet long or so--nice, she'd missed that one; it was easy to style--and shot out to wrap around the monster's throat. She flexed imaginary muscles and hoisted him off the ground.

"Nobody gets to hurt my friends but me," she growled. Her brass-coated hair tightened around his throat like a garotte, slicing deeper until it severed flesh, bone, and all. The creature's body sagged forward, but when it didn't release Anya, Buffy slashed her hair down it like a razor whip. She reached in and tugged out Anya--gasping for breath, skin red with the beginning of acid burns, but alive...for now.

Buffy was about to punch Anya in the face when she realized the creature's flesh was clinging to her hands and hair. Tissue and ribs surged forward,and she churned her hair like a blender, slicing and flinging off the molten flesh. That should have been that, but the gobbets grew tentacles that fused together when they touched, drank up liquified tissue, and molded itself back into the shape of a satyr-wolf hybrid. The monster cocked its head at her and grinned mockingly. Buffy felt a surge of unnatural but entirely justified fear.

"Where the hell do you get off doing that?" Buffy shook her head, pretending to shake off the experience with it. "You're worse than Dracula."

The monster only lunged forward and gouged its claws deep into her chest, drawing blood. It opened a yawning maw and bent over her face, and a pair of gunzosha troopers in full armor tackled it low and high.

*****

"Slayer!" Spike shouted, but it was obviously lost in the roar of battle aa Ma-Ha-Suchi leaned down to chew Buffy's face off. If there was one thing he didn't mind sharing with that ponce Angel, it was Buffy's survival. He leapr up and hit the beastman high as Angel tackled it around the knees.

The monster's flesh shifted underneath him and suddenly it had his armor by the helmet and breastplate. Ma-Ha-Suchi wrenched, his helmet flew off, and his breastplate gave off a huge crack as the armor's systems powered down all at once. The thing sniffed at him and murmured, "New. Next," before slamming him aside like a sack of potatoes.

Angel was still clinging to the fellow's legs, clearly not impeding him much. Ma-Ha-Suchi kicked, and Angel flew across the battlefield into a scrum of wolfmen and bizarre creatures that smelled like nothing Spike had smelled before.

Well, so much for meeting an Exalt in a fair fight. Buffy, maybe. Not this thing.

"Hey, meathead," Stephen shouted. Brave, but stupid. He strode forward to meet the other Lunar. Perspective threw Spike off, and it took a few moments to realize the boy was growing with every step, swelling into a horned, fanged thing at least as tall as Buffy had been and a lot more muscular.

"Haxil beast," Spike muttered. Maybe there was still some chance to win this fight.

*****

Iron Siaka whaled on Ma-Ha-Suchi wuth the Dulcet Consolator for all she was worth. At least she was distracting him. And a silvery glow had finally enveloped the Lunar, but she was shining all out by now. Everyone was but Buffy and Ma-Ha-Suchi, and Buffy's anima kept flickering with shapes as if on the edge of turning iconic. Stupid girl should've brought her daikalbar, but Siaka grudgingly admitted some admiration for her. She didn't quit.

She jumped back as a gigantic foot somewhere between frog and elephant came down on Ma-Ha-Suchi. A summoned demon? A Wyld behemoth from the fae fighting down below? What was that thing? She couldn't make herself care.

Ma-Ha-Suchi rose from beneath the creature, shoving the foot up by main force until the beast toppled. Was there nothing that could stop him? TARA ran by behind the madman, firing some sort of weapon into him from point-blank range. He barely flinched. She was surrounded by the firefly specks that seemed to be ss much her as her anima, and she was panting heavily. Anya swung by after her, punching at Ma-Ha-Suchi's head. Her attack on his confidence and bravery had thus far proven the best shot they had, but he was wise to her now. If only her resplendent destiny hadn't been shredded already, she could do to him what she'd done to Buffy, but that ship had sailed.

Lightning crackled up from below again, this time encasing Ma-Ha-Suchi in a sheath of ice. That bought them a moment to breathe, and then he shattered his way out.

The battle below them seemed to be dying as the beastmen fell to a horde of raksha. But the Fair Folk would carry off anyone they could while the Exalted were occupied, if no one stopped them. They were no solution, just a different problem.

*****

"I am really, really sick of being eaten!" Anya struggled to her feet just in time to get a good look at Dawn. "Er...you've changed."

"Haven't you?" Dawn asked. She felt uncomfortably full, for the moment, at least--bloated on beastman dreams of conquest and destruction. Just as well. She didn't want to want to nom on Anya.

"Fair point," Anya agreed. "You are on our side...right?"

"Against the crazy destructive guy? Sure. You guys seem to be having trouble with him." Most of his beastmen were wandering aimlessly now, but Ma-Ha-Suchi himself was currently pounding on Tara, despite having his hands chewed at by the diamond blades floating in her aura.

"I've got an idea," Anya said. "Can you--?" The more Dawn heard of the idea, the less she liked it. If Ma-Ha-Suchi hit her, even once, she was probably dead.

It made her look good, though.

*****

Shadow crept up the hill. She wasn't sure how she was going to close in on Ma-Ha-Suchi enough to hit him with the Scythe Buffy had left behind, but she did know she had to try. She had a job to do, and Ma-Ha-Suchi was even more of a menace than her other self. She had a duty to the people of Gem, for her promises.

Anya, ahead of her, slipped the starmetal bow back into its quiver and charged at the mad Lunar, leaping into the air. Ma-Ha-Suchi, wary of her for whatever reason, dodged left, but Anya caught Buffy's hand and dragged herself into an arc to follow him. He ducked low, sending her flying, and opened himself to Buffy's kicks, which he evaded easily by rolling toward TARA.

And from TARA's other side, Dawn came rolling beneath the diamond blades. She reached under the Lunar's horns and jammed her fingers inside his head. Ma-Ha-Suchi's howl echoed through the mountains, and his backhand sent Dawn hurtling downslope, where she rolled several times and was still.

Shadow had yet to work out what she felt about Dawn, but both of them had been created from Buffy. With a cry whose fury surprised her, she hurtled forward with the Scythe and drove its stakepoint through Ma-Ha-Suchi's heart. The enraged Lunar struggled and began to shift form to escape his impalement...

...And from the other side, Buffy coiled her hair around the Scythe and wrenched it upward. Brass strands spun down the haft and snaked their way into the Lunar's body, erupting from every pore. Ma-Ha-Suchi screamed as Buffy began to tear him into bloody shreds once again, this time from the inside. "I toldja," Buffy said wearily, "predator and prey--"

"--can't get along in one body," Shadow finished. They'd been thinking the same thing. Buffy nodded curtly to her in grudging acknowledgement.

But Ma-Ha-Suchi had escaped such a demise once already. Her hands crackling with green-black energies, Anya brought both of them down on his head like a club. His moonsilver tattoos flared momentarily, protecting him from instant death, but the energies Anya was releasing still tore through his body.

Some sort of commotion was rising down by the palace, but Shadow had no time for it. She began to saw the haft of the Scythe sideways through Ma-Ha-Suchi's ripping tissues. TARA joined in, pummeling the Lunar from the side with reverberating shock-blows that tore through him.

It was more than even the immensely powerful Lunar could handle. In a minute or less, Ma-Ha-Suchi was reduced to gobbets of flesh all over the mountainside. This time they failed to twitch or move.

A golden blur roared up through the air on fiery pinions. A suit of power armor hovered there, shining. "Well," it said, speakers amplifying the voice. "The Dread Pirate Roberts expresses his admiration and dismay. Looks like you didn't even need me here."

As everyone turned to stare, the bits of tattered flesh sprouted tendrils and began trying to crawl away. "Never mind," Xander chuckled, and turned a pair of wrist-mounted flamethrowers on the stuff. "Looks like I'm needed for something after all."


	23. And If You Think We Can't

"I promise I won't hurt you," Buffy said stiffly. "You're still my friends."

She was in a part of the Despot's palace that Xander wished wasn't here and wished he didn't think Buffy had used, with her strapped down to what he preferred to pretend was an operating table. For someone with her powers, it amounted to pretty flimsy restraints, but hopefully it'd give the real security--the Scoobies--a second to react if she started to break free. They hadn't even bothered to hide the Scythe. If she got that far, they were already in trouble.

"I wish we could trust you on that," he said sadly. "I wish we were still friends." Beside him, Anya winced, but nothing untoward happened.

"She's still your friend," TARA said softly. "For now, at least. She's not lying about that. It just...won't stop her from manipulating or fighting you to get what she wants. But she will make some effort not to hurt you."

Buffy nodded from her table. "I hope you realize that, Xander. You guys don't treat me any different. I hear you're an admiral now?"

"Of Luthe," Xander admitted. "And Fred's the queen. We don't blame you for that, Buffy. I'm sure you did what you had to. We heard good things out of Gem at first."

"Only at first? What'd I do that you had to come kick my butt?"

Xander closed his eyes and shook his head. "So far it's not what you've done so much as what you haven't, Buffy. They say you killed all the lawyers, and Spike's your head executioner now. Nobody's vetting new accusations--people are just going straight to jail, maybe even straight to execution."

"Xander," Buffy said in a reasonable tone, "how is that different from what I've always done, other than treating humans the same as demons? Or...wait...are you seriously suggesting that I _ought_ to discriminate? Humans get a trial, demons just get the stake?" She shook her head as if disgusted. "You, Chosen of the Sun, advocate of goodness? You're not off to a great start. Oh, and I didn't kill any lawyers."

"It was just a meta...ugh!" Xander threw up his hands and stalked away. "Any ideas how to get through to her?" he asked TARA.

TARA shook her head. "This isn't some simple mental illness, and it isn't mind control. This is an actual supernatural power from the Ebon Dragon. No ordinary magics can get rid of it. In fact, where Creation's Chosen are concerned, it takes unusual powers just to get rid of something like this yourself." She gave a brief smug smile. "I'd just uninstall it if it were me."

Xander stared at Buffy, who was whistling idly. "You call this a power? _This?_ She might as well be a vampire!"

TARA shook her head. "Try insulting Spike's bravery sometime. Or take the Master. His beliefs were horrible, but he was devoted to them. Buffy's beyond that. As for being a power...imagine what you could do if you had no inhibitions at all."

"Nothing good, I'd think."

TARA gave a deep sigh. "Please don't make me have to kill you too."

" _What?_ " This was Tara he was talking to, for god's sake!

"Xander, nothing about these powers requires Buffy to be evil. In fact they boost her willpower so that she can choose good whenever she wants. Good just...doesn't have the immediacy it does for us." Xander frowned at her foolishly, and she seemed to take a moment to consider. "What _is_ power, Xander?"

Xander mulled it over. "Freedom, I guess. Choices other people don't have."

"Buffy is free to choose, in a way we aren't. She can't be pressured by any conventional means. She can't suffer from Stockholm syndrome. She can't be fooled or trapped by hard moral dilemmas." TARA let that sink in before going on. "But she's not ready for it. She's bound by too many other human limitations. She gets hungry, horny, sleepy, bored. She was afraid of transcending those limits in my timeline too. Now she's stumbled over a worse one."

Xander pounded his fist on the wall. "How does that have anything to do with basically losing your soul?"

TARA took hold of him by the wrist. "How much of vampires killing humans is not having a conscience...and how much is _needing to eat_? Yes," she said, anticipating his response, "they have other ways to survive now. The point is that we're all shaped by our needs. Most of the wrong things we do are about our needs, and being used to having those needs. If humans didn't need food or shelter, how much less theft would there be? Buffy's too shaped by those needs to just forget them now, but if she'd started earlier--if she'd realized sooner that instead of not needing to sleep much, she didn't need sleep at all, and gone on from there--we might not be in this mess. You don't hurt other people to meet your needs if you don't have any. You can choose to, if you like--the Ebon Dragon does--but you aren't forced to."

"But it's too late to just teach her that?" Xander considered. "She's too used to needing stuff to change right away even if she stopped needing it. Is that what you're saying?"

TARA nodded. "The Ebon Dragon's powers aren't guaranteed damnation, not even these. I'm hoping that understanding that will give you a clue how to bring her back, because I don't know how."

"Regular therapy won't work. And no ordinary magic can take her powers." TARA nodded. "So we have to...what? Go on an epic quest to restore her? TARA, I'm not sure we can take the time for that, not if the apocalypse is still on schedule."

TARA lowered her gaze. "I'm sorry. I do wish you wouldn't give up yet. You have some time still. And, um...not all quests are external."

Xander nodded. "I guess I'm on the case."

**Chapter 49--And If You Think We Can't**

"I let you off easy," Buffy said.

"Come on," Anya scoffed. "We had you fair and square. You were nearly burnt out after fighting Ma-Ha-Suchi."

"Not what I meant. You're a killer who could drown Angelus in blood. Just one of the things you did--the Russian Revolution--killed millions of people. You're right up there with Hitler and Stalin--hell, you _created_ Stalin." Buffy's smirk showed vicious teeth. "But I let you live. And now you're a bigwig in Yu-Shan. Do they really know what you are?"

"You were at the trial. You heard me tell them. I admitted to everything I remembered." Anya's tone was flat and cold. "I also told them they could do what they wanted with me. You want me to go live in an alley and moan about what an awful monster I am? What good does that do? I'm not Angel. I'm doing what I can to fix the mess they've made of this world. It won't undo anything I did, but it'll save people now. What are you doing to make the world better? Anything?"

Buffy scoffed. "I overthrew a tyrant. You're standing in his palace."

"So did I. You just told me that put me up there with Stalin, but I didn't know what the result would be. You don't either." Anya reached out and poked Buffy in the chest. "At least you hung around to guide the results, so maybe it'll turn out better. Only you're not paying any attention, are you?"

"You're missing the point," Buffy said, yawning. "I don't care. You're trying to make me care, but you don't live up to your own standards. So...where exactly do you get off telling me what to do?"

Anya leaned forward into Buffy's face. "I didn't grow up with your standards. I do know they don't tell me thing one about making up for what I did. Dying doesn't fix anything. Helping people fixes _something_ , at least. When I was a vengeance demon I did good work. Now that I'm a Sidereal I want to do as good a job. I want to be proud enough to brag the way I brag about eviscerations."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Go fuck yourself."

Anya clenched her teeth and didn't move.

"Okay, go fuck your boyfriend. Or your wife. I don't give a damn what you do, just quit bothering me."

"You know," Anya said, "I don't have to let you off easy." And she turned on her heel and walked away.

Maybe she'd feel better if she did all three.

*****

"I still don't understand why you threatened me," Xander wondered.

"Because you and Buffy have the same kind of black-and-white thinking," TARA said. "For all I know, Buffy succeeds because you help her. Or are you telling me you wouldn't kill the Ebon Dragon?"

"TARA," Xander said carefully, "you told me doing that would end the world. That's enough reason to let him live. But I can't think of any other."

"None of the Yozi are good...people," TARA began, "for lack of a better word. And you're right that the Ebon Dragon is perhaps worse than most of the others. But he's the Principle of Opposition, not the Principle of Evil. Put him in a oppressive regime and he'll overthrow it. Give him a villain with a dream of tyranny and he'll break that dream in pieces. The one time he tells the truth is to hurt people, but sometimes confronting people with the hard truth is the best favor you can do them. It's what Buffy needs, right?"

"When you put it that way...."

"The Ebon Dragon doesn't want the best for anyone but himself. But in sharing his power, he's shared his perspective. So he wants freedom. Freedom's not bad, is it?" TARA spread her hands as if offering it herself.

Xander took her right hand and gestured with his left. "He doesn't care about freeing Buffy. But he's shared power that Buffy can use to free herself. I figure he gets something out of it too?"

"Of course," TARA said. "He wants to be free himself. If he were in any lesser prison he'd already be out. He's freedom, but freedom's not bad. He's opposition, but some things need opposing. And he's deception, but some lies are worse than others. How many times did you bluff your way out of school to save the world?"

"That's a lot to think about," Xander said. It sounded plausible. Which a lie cooked up by the Ebon Dragon would, of course.

"Well," TARA said, "think about it. Buffy didn't."

*****

Rupert Giles sagged against a wall, standing over the dissolving corpse of his four-armed assailant. Wesley wasn't quite finished with his, but Giles wasn't as young as he used to be, and for the moment all he could do was catch his breath.

"You'd think," Wesley said finally, "that eventually one of us would Exalt under the pressure."

"Limited supply," Giles reminded him. "Only seven hundred to go around, in a world of billions of people. If not for that, it'd be a wonderfully meritocratic system."

"Eventually, Rupert," Wesley said, "you must realize they'll stop playing around. They'll send actual Sidereal assassins, and we won't stand a chance."

Of course they would. By that time their stockpile of Cruciamentum toxin would give them one. But that was all part of the bluff, like Criosyn's supposed death. So Giles only nodded and said, "Maybe it's time we made some effort to leave Yu-Shan. I know that distance will make little difference, but it will still be greater than zero."

Wesley nodded. "I suppose it's time. Let's find Cordelia and Charles."

*****

"I know you're not Tara," Buffy told the android. "You're an Exalt from our time."

"No," Tara said. "I'm not her. I understand the mistake, though. You know I warned you about this. Exaltations still make me nervous, but there are powers you can't just...well, my father would have said 'put your hand to the plow and look back.' He was hateful, but he wasn't stupid."

"Well, I've done that now," Buffy sneered. "I like what I am now."

"Closing the barn door after the horse is out," Tara said. "I'm not sure I can do anything to help, but I thought I should come see you. I miss the way you were."

"Weak? Afraid? Or conflicted?" Buffy tugged on her straps as if by habit.

"Self-aware. Thoughtful," Tara listed. "Sane. Did you ever wonder why I didn't object to you not staking Spike?"

"I did. A little. Bored now."

"I thought, in spite of all his problems, he might be salvageable somehow," Tara said sadly. "I wish I could say the same for you."

"You think you can kill me?" Buffy laughed harshly, not so different from the way Faith had sounded. Wait...what else reminded Tara of that time? Something wedged in, its energy out of place.

"I do," Tara said. "Because you know that if you hurt me in any way, even in self-defense, Willow won't let you die for a long, long time." She spun and walked away.

*****

"A shaping effect," TARA said. "A power that bends reality outside the conventional laws of nature."

"Don't they all?" Xander asked.

"When you punch someone in the face it hurts them," TARA said. "When you run you move faster. When you wave your hand, bunnies don't appear. Not naturally. It's too simple a concept to explain easily."

"Is it something Buffy's done to herself?" Willow asked.

"No," TARA said, "not in that way. Learning Yozi powers, even especially alien ones, wouldn't leave such a signature." She frowned and tapped her fingers thoughtfully. "She made a wish. And Sulumor granted her the power she asked for. She didn't learn it conventionally."

"It's like a spell, then?" Tara wondered. "Can we break it?"

"All shaping effects are vulnerable," TARA said, "but it's not like a spell, and they're much easier to prevent than to reverse. Especially from the outside."

"Buffy likes herself the way she is now," Xander said. "If you're saying she needs to throw it off herself, I don't think we can make her."

"We can't force her," Anya said. "We can trick her, though. Oldest one in the book. We convince her she doesn't want it any more."

"How?" Willow asked.

"That's absolutely the question," Xander said thoughtfully.

*****

Cearr strolled into the Conventicle, a neomah under his arm, and Cyan sighed. It was his business what he did with neomah, but his tastes were nothing she wanted to see.

"I'm sorry, kiddo," he said, and patted the neomah on the shoulder. "I don't think he'll love you less."

"What's this?" Cyan asked. "Who is she?"

"Project Alpha," Cearr said. Ostensibly that was about improving coordination of the Reclamation. Actually, it had to do with the plan to leave the Yozis in the lurch and take Creation for themselves.

"A neomah," Cyan said doubtfully. "You do you, Cearr, but don't pretend to be civilized."

"It's his kid," Cearr said calmly. "Orchid-Eater ain't gonna be happy, but it's better than not getting her back at all. Best of all, I can prove Mr. Big's responsible. He's the most powerful Yozi loyalist around."

"You're certain?" That would be the greatest boon to the movement yet. Of course, that gave Cearr himself disproportionate influence, but he would slip up again.

"I'm no dumber than you are, Cyan. I know what I'm doing. Orchid-Eater's the type to actually be grateful, an' when he finds out the loyalists did this--"

"He'll come over to us. He's hardly without ambition himself." Cyan walked over to the poor girl and offered her a sweet. "Candy? I'm sorry, little one. Your old life is over, and not even we can restore it, but there will be perks. And I think the big lug is right--your father will love you no matter what."

She'd make sure of it, just in case.

*****

Xander wished he could be sure this would work. Even Buffy's loyalty to her friends was up in the air right now, and if she lost that...well, there wouldn't be much Buffy left in that case. "Dawnster...I hate this. We'll find a way to get her back to you." He squeezed her hand, and she smiled weakly up at him.

"I can live with it either way, Xander." She was swathed in bandages and splints, and lucky at that. Ma-Ha-Suchi had hit her one time. Why the wrappings had any effect on her illusory body, he wasn't sure, but they seemed to work. "I remember the lie, and so does she. There's worse that could've happened."

"Fred, I know you two just met when we came here." Hell, Fred had Exalted punching Buffy in the face. "She's going to need your help anyway. I'm glad you made it back." The Cslibration Gate still sat in front of the Despot's palace in spite of increasingly-angry demands from all Sidereal factions and several gods that it be removed. Unfortunately, Gem was far from any static gate, so Anya kept having to burn her limited supply of favors to keep moving it back.

"It's all right," Fred said. "I understand why being human matters. Just think she's got her definitions wrong."

"It's time to do this. She's broken free twice, nearly seduced her way out five times, and had her doubles try to get in three. Anh, I'm relying on you to be bad cop. Will--Scholar, Shadow...you know how we're handling things." A series of nods. Unfortunately, Spike and Angel were also among the injured--wait, who was he kidding? that wasn't unfortunate at all--and Giles was busy with Yu-Shananigans.

Shadow nodded and strolled through the door. Xander kept his ears open--he was getting to be a really good listener. "I'm sorry, Buffy," he heard her say. "The truth is, we don't need two of me any more. And since I've got as good a claim as you now--"

Snap! Buffy was loose. Just as planned. "C'mon, guys." They filed through the door one by one. "Sorry, Buff. We were going to break the news together. You're just too corrupted to keep around. We're all sad, but since there's more than one of you anyway--"

"You've been waiting for this," Buffy said, a quiet snarl. "Ever since you got to be the hero, ever since you found out I wasn't--"

"You were a hero, Buffy," Willow said. "Even when you killed Rankar. Not all monsters are, well...monsters. But you can't be a hero unless you know which is which, and you just don't anymore."

"I thought you people knew better. I've been Exalted longer than any of you. I know what I'm doing here. You just have to trust me, okay?" Buffy began to work her limbs. "The people here are only used to obeying from fear. They need to learn that they have a voice. That when they ask for justice, they can get it."

"You've never been about justice, Buffy," Anya said contemptuously. "This is a vendetta. Always has been, always will be."

"It doesn't matter what Kimbery--"

"Kimbery?" Anya scoffed. "It's a human vendetta, Buffy. Demon kills one human, humans kill twenty demons. Everything's always an excuse to break out the torches and pitchforks. That's what the Slayer is, what she's always been: humanity's personal vengeance demon. You're not a hero, Buffy. You never were. You're just a Hatfield. And trust me, Buffy...I know my Hatfields."

Buffy lunged at Anya, and Xander seized her by the wrists. It wasn't nearly enough, and Fred wrapped her arms around Buffy's waist and pulled her away.

"Too much, Anh," Xander said quietly. "Slayer history doesn't matter. What matters is Buffy."

"All you have to do is be reasonable, Buffy." Willow put herself between Buffy and the others. "Spike can behave himself now. Maybe if you let me put something like a chip in your brain, I can--"

"No! No chips!" Buffy struggled in Fred's and Xander's grasp, wrenching free, and Willow was forced to toss a bolt of lightning that encased her feet in ice. It wasn't enough; Buffy dropped to her hands and wrapped her legs around Willow before lifting up and punching her in the gut. Willow began to gag and dry-heave as Buffy kicked her feet against a table to shatter the ice, and....

Tara slapped Buffy in the face. Once on the left. Once on the right. "No more! Stop it, guys, just stop. We can't reason with her." She gritted her teeth. "Just k-kill her and get it over with."

Buffy's eyes went wide as if she'd been punched, not merely slapped...for all of five seconds. Then she began to laugh, softly at first but building to a crescendo. "It's all an act. That's all this is, isn't it? You're still trying to fix me. Well, for what It's worth, I was almost ready to try. And then you just had to go a step too far and bring in Tara. I know you too well,Tara. You couldn't hurt a--"

Tara picked up the Scythe and thrust it in one wobbly motion into Buffy's chest. Buffy's jaw dropped, but she didn't. Tara, sniffling, gave the weapon a twist. "I'm sorry you don't know me as well as you think." Tears rolled down her face, but when Buffy's knees didn't buckle she thrust the Scythe deeper. "C'mon, Will. I can't do this alone."

Buffy began to gasp and wheeze. Black, bloody vapor poured from her mouth. "She's just trying to make another double," Shadow said disappointedly. "Maybe she thinks--"

"Wait for it," Tara whispered.

The black vapor took form slowly, becoming an mirror of Buffy carved from deepest night, even as Buffy's aura flared into the image of a great winged dragon-cat. The spirit-form began to look around contempuously. Then its eyes bulged in horror...and it scattered on the faintest wisp of a breeze.

Buffy crumpled to her knees and began to sob. "Oh god...I'm so sorry, you guys...I...what did I do?"

"You had a moment of weakness," Tara said, sitting down in front of her. "And you can't afford to have another. But you finished what you started. Some help here, guys? It's done."

Anya sat down next to Tara and began to make some sort of complicated passes with her hands. "I hope this teaches you never to use Ebon Dragon powers again."

In spite of the obvious agony in her torn chest, Buffy began to laugh. "You don't see it, Anya. The Ebon Dragon enslaved me and the Ebon Dragon set me free. No. More than that. Sulumor and Cecelyne used his power to control me, and I used his power to free myself. I'm such an idiot. I don't even deserve you guys."

"Nope," Xander said. "But you've got us anyway."

One by one, they all began to laugh.


	24. Pleasure Cruise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realized I haven't been updating here. I'm going to add a chapter every couple of days till we're caught up.

"When I assumed the office of Despot," Buffy said, "I made some promises. I promised to establish an interim Council, and I did that. I limited its power because I had to choose between those with little experience and those with little compassion, but all the same they limited the harm I could do in the past few weeks."

She wasn't used to giving speeches. Even as Despot she hadn't given many. But on the few occasions she'd done it, the excitement had been a rush. This time, though...this time the sea of faces below her made her stomach churn.

"I promised free Council elections. It's time those took place. I am personally funding all campaigns from Gem's coffers. Turns out I've got more money than I can be trusted with."

She stood on a fairly low balcony of the palace, thankfully facing away from the sun, above the Sun Market where she'd first seized power. The stands were barely visible among the mass of spectators.

"And I promised that I would submit to elections within the year. It's early. I haven't had time to set up the infrastructure for those. But I see a packed crowd beneath me, and I have not lived up to my promises to establish a just government. I'm sorry that I've failed you. If you want me out...say so. And I'll go quietly and let you be ruled by someone worthy of the job. I've screwed up a lot. But I hadn't messed with your freedom of speech yet. Trust me when I say no one will be punished for asking me to leave."

The square erupted with cries. Not the ones she expected. "Despot Buffy! Despot Buffy!" "All hail the defender of Gem!" "Victory! Victory!"

She made a show of waving and smiling, though she doubted anyone could see the latter. The cheers went on and on and on.

Finally she slipped back into the shadows to renewed cries of "Despot Buffy!" and, hanging her head, retired to her rooms to have a good solid cry.

*****

"Buff," Xander said simply from the foot of her bed. "Long time no see."

"No kidding," Buffy acknowledged. Anya sat there, too, her fingers entwined in his. Across the bed sat Willow and Tara, too, equally affectionate. "Please tell me this was all a bad dream."

Everyone glanced at the corner of the room, where a golden androgynous figure sat. "Not a good sign, asking that, you know?" said TARA.

Buffy flopped back onto the pillows. "Figures."

"They want us to stay," said the Unconquerable Shadow from the opposite corner. Her skin and hair were slowly growing paler, though it had taken some time to become noticeable, just as Willow--or the Hanged Scholar--was growing darker. Black veins spiderwebbed across the latter's face, along with faint cracks from drying skin. "Well...you, anyway. I'm not sure they understand the difference between us."

"I don't know how I'm going to do this," Buffy said softly. "I've already cracked once under the pressure."

"The only way out is through, Buffy." She hadn't seen Fred yet; the skinny Lunar had been hiding behind Willow and Tara. "Exaltations were made to overcome human limitations. You just have to figure out which way yours works for something."

"She knows how," TARA said, "but she hasn't thought of it. Most colossi and almost all cities spend time in avatar-bodies to not completely lose touch with their humanity. Nothing stops Buffy from doing the same except her fears."

"I've spent my whole adult life protecting humanity," Buffy protested. "You want me to give mine up."

"Humanity is good, Buffy," Fred said. "But it's not the only good. I want you to spend some time with me. Okay? When was the last time you had some me time?"

"You mean like at the mall?" Buffy tried to remember. Before Glory had captured Dawn.... "Months and months."

"That's pretty bad, Buffy," Fred said. "I mean, it's been longer for me, but you weren't marooned. Only, that's not really what I meant. You guys all talk about Buffy being Buffy or being the Slayer. But has she ever really had a chance to be both at once?"

The Scoobies glanced at each other. "When things were good with Faith," Willow said. "That's about it."

"You know that didn't end well, right?" Buffy made a face. "It starts with clubbing and the next thing you know you're robbing hunting stores and crashing police cars and then you accidentally murder the deputy mayor and--"

"Leave a double, Buffy," Fred said. "You're coming with me to Luthe. All of you. It's vacation time."

**Chapter 50--Pleasure Cruise**

"I'd like to make a stipulation," Anya said, hair streaming back in the wind. She knew how rich Buffy was; she hadn't thought about being rich herself. They were riding double--her and Xander in the lead, Fred and Shadow in the middle and Buffy, Willow and Tara in the rear--because they didn't all have experience on swift riders, but together they could easily have bought one for each of them. Well, if there had been that many. Even in Gem there were limits. "No harm no foul on the magics. Nothing permanent and no injury without permission, but anything else goes."

"We do need the practice," Shadow said thoughtfully. "Anyone object?"

"Guys, you don't wanna--" Buffy began.

"That's the point," Anya cut in. "We do wanna. We're not afraid of your powers as long as you don't do anything that can't be easily undone and doesn't involve being eviscerated. Sparring's fine but we need to agree on that individually."

"I'm good with that," Willow chimed in.

"Same," Xander said.

"Kinda the point here," Fred agreed.

"Um," Tara said. "Feeling a little left out. Magic is a serious thing and anyway I'm the only one hanging out who's not Exalted."

"The Architect called you an 'accomplished sorceress'," Willow said. "You don't have to do anything you don't wanna, sweetie, and you don't have to join in, but you're welcome to."

"I'll think about it," Tara said uncomfortably.

"If you want to stay in Yu-Shan it's fine with me," Anya said. "Just don't mess up my house."

"Or Luthe," Fred said. "You could study a lot of interesting things in Luthe. Ancient magics, supertech...whatever you like."

"I might stay with Giles and Wesley," Tara said. She cut a sideways glance at Fred that Willow missed.

"All up to you," Anya said.

"You're really serious about the superpowers?" Buffy asked. "You're not gonna get the wiggins if I go all green flamey?"

"Absolutely serious," Fred said. "We're all going to let loose and have fun with our powers. If someone gets freaked they can say stop right away but otherwise--"

"Okay," Buffy said. "Flash someone." The tiara of smoke and fire flared up around her forehead.

Fred's eyes bugged out for a second. Then she turned to face Willow, let go of the handles, and lifted her shirt.

"Nice," Willow said, blushing. "You've got more in there these days."

Fred blushed back. "Um, yeah...about that."

"No shame," Anya said. "And not like you'll hear Xander complain."

"Or me," Willow added.

"Just mindin' my own business," Buffy said.

"Which is why you had a girl flash her chest when Xander's right here," Tara said with an impish grin. "Tell me again about your me-time with Faith?"

"Oh come on. It sucked anyway. The guys would crowd around when we danced and I was sure someone there was just dying to move in and kiss me but she'd always run all the guys off. And then we'd go catch our breath and she'd get in close like she meant to whisper even though you couldn't hear anything over the music...." She trailed off. "Holy shit, she was flirting with me."

"No she wasn't," Anya said. "You were out clubbing. Call me old-fashioned but I think that qualifies as a date."

"That's...that's ridiculous. Faith hated me." Even Shadow rolled her eyes at that.

"Hell hath no fury," Anya snickered. "Trust me on this. Seen it a million times."

"And nobody told me about this?" Shadow asked.

"I thought you knew," Willow explained, "right up till you wigged on me about Tara and then I didn't want to talk about it after."

"Oh," Buffy said. "I'm really sorry about that. I was just...suddenly I was wondering if you'd been perving on me and how long and I know now that that was rude but I didn't then and...and...."

"Psssh. Water under the bridge," said Willow. "Besides, you're not my type. Too skinny. What is it with guys anyway?"

Xander jumped. "Uuuuummmm...Yu-Shan gate ahead!"

*****

"Busy here," Buffy said. Together, Fred, Anya, and Xander had managed to talk the rest of them inside...somehow.

"Summit going on," Xander explained. "While we were prepping to invade Gem, some Solars called Swan and Panther showed up and started negotiating with the Sidereals. I'm not in on the talks."

"Even Gold Faction's probably nervous about too many talky Solars in the same place," Anya surmised. "Anyway,remember that Yu-Shan is not a party town. We want to pass through quietly."

"Because I'm still persona non grata?" Buffy asked. She'd tried to stay back with the Abyssals while Anya talked.

"No actually," Anya said. "I mean officially yes, sort of. But Shining Barrator had you and the Scholar downgraded to 'least concern' after you helped stop the riots, even though you skipped out afterwards. They say Lytek got involved somehow. He wants to study you some more...something about 'protoprimordial metamorphosis', whatever that means."

"Nope nope nope," Buffy said. "Not gonna be poked and prodded any more."

"What are the negotiations about?" Shadow asked.

"Access to the Jade Pleasure Dome to talk to the Sun," Fred explained. "They think Ignis Divine could fix some things if he was paying attention."

"Typical Powers That Be behavior," Anya said. "Anyway, no, Yu-Shan just doesn't like humans making a racket. Xander might talk his way out of it since he's a Solar, but the rest of us wouldn't." She came to a halt in front of a massive refurbishing project. "Hey! Guys, where's the staff?"

"Hadn't seen the mortals," a burly worker said. "Other Sids been asking around for them too, but it's been two, three days."

"They left this for you," Resolute Speaker of Truth added, holding out a note. She was wearing nicer clothing these days. "No one else was to have it."

Anya frowned at the scrap of paper. "'Don't worry. All going according to plan. Dead god is walking.' Okay. They're fine." She glanced at Buffy. "We'll talk about it when we can't be easily overheard. The others know."

"I don't," Shadow said.

Anya blushed faintly. "Right, you were in Gem still...that is right, isn't it?" Shadow nodded. "Well, I'll tell both Buffys when I can."

"How much further?" Xander asked.

"i have to grab a couple of resplendent destinies from my office for use in Luthe, and then we're going to pop out near my Convention headquarters," Anya said. "I've got to check in there really quick."

"No prob, Bob."

Anya gave him a level stare. "We're about to hitch a canoe. We'll be there soon."

*****

"Paperwork," Anya groaned. "Who invented paperwork in this world? Ryzala, bless me and keep me far away from you."

Willow took the pile of folders and stuffed it into a storage compartment. "Fun now. Work later. Besides, seriously, you can finish this in a couple of seconds."

"Can you steer this thing?" Fred asked Anya. "Because the Luthean models have different controls."

"Um...maybe?" Anya studied the instrument panel briefly. "It can't be too hard."

"Here," Buffy said. She tapped a single button, put her hands to the steering interface, and guided the craft smoothly out of the dock. Viewscreens showed the water rippling smoothly behind them. "Some high-power demons took me down into part of the Demon Sea in kind of a 'die or fly' thing, only it was 'breathe water or drown'. And now boats are just in my head even though the last time I was on a boat I was thirteen and Dad was taking me fishing. It's a Kimbery thing."

"Everyone who can breathe water raise your hand," Fred said. She put her hand up. Buffy followed, then Anya, and Xander last.

"Hearthstone," he explained. "You guys really need to get hold of some."

"Everyone get your hands up," Buffy said. "At least I'm supposed to be able to make you. Also acid. Also lava. No joke, I'm safe in anything liquid."

"Helium?" Fred wondered. Willow nodded, her eyes a little wide.

"Liquid helium," Buffy agreed. "If you know where to find any and I can make myself dive in."

"That's really cool," Xander said. "I mean, I know all the new powers are freaking you out but--"

"It's a Kimbery power," Buffy protested. "If we all start sprouting fins and tentacles nobody better say I told you so."

Fred raised one eyebrow. Her arms stretched, growing flexible, hands turning to suckered pads. Her legs split into a bundle of tentacles, dropping her to the deck. Perhaps most disconcerting, another ring of tentacles sprouted around her mouth, waving gently. "Buffy," she said gently, "it's time to embrace the weird. This is me. I'm still me. I don't wanna strangle anybody or eat any fish I didn't already. It's okay."

"And if I can't go back? What if I get stuck looking all freakworthy?" Buffy started waving her hands about as if they might turn into tentacles at any moment.

"Then you make people treat you like you aren't," Anya said. "I'm sorry if that bugs anyone, but seriously we have a right to be ourselves _and_ normal, _and_ we have the power to."

Tara began to shake her head nervously. "That way lies badness, Anya."

"Not if we only use it for that," Anya insisted. "I'm Siddie. I have to make people see me the way I want or they won't see me at all."

Tara sighed. "Maybe. I guess."

"C'mon," Xander said. "Let's get in the water. This is break day, not stress over implications day."

Buffy guided the boat into a slow drift and set the autopilot, then led the group up to the deck. By her standards it was a small houseboat type of thing with an overpowered engine; by this world's it was a tiny splinter with no visible propulsion. It was shiny and grey and easily lost, a speck on the ocean. She stripped off her dress, leaving her in just the bikini Anya'd had made for her. She spent a lot more time naked these days than she really wanted to. "Everyone who can breathe water on their own goes over first."

"Sensible," Anya said, and leapt over the rail at once. Xander followed, holding his nose and making a giant splash. Fred shook her head at him and slithered under the rail. No doubt she was more graceful in the water.

Buffy held out her hands. "One at a time. Will?" Willow stepped up, and Buffy put one hand on her forehead. "Sorry. I'm not used to doing stuff to other people besides punching them. If I mess up one of the others will fish you out." A flicker of green energy danced over her fingers. "You next...me. And Tara...are you all right?"

"You did...things, Buffy. Things that made me afraid of you. I wish this could be one of the others, but it can't."

"I'm sorry, Tara. For what it's worth, you were right. I got in over my head cause I was fighting tooth and nail to stay 'normal'. And I'm not normal. I haven't been for years." She reached up to fumble with a strand of hair. "Just like your family told you you were a demon, my first Watcher told me I'd be locked up or killed for telling the truth. He meant well, but he made me afraid of myself. And then I came here and found out what I really was, and that made it worse. But we both deserved better. Ok?"

"I understand. How long will it last?"

"A day or so. You can even take a nap." Buffy gave a nervous laugh and laid her hand on Tara's face.

One by one they leapt overboard.

*****

Buffy plunged downward beneath Fred in a smooth, perfect dive and began to head back up. Though she doubted the others could see it down here, Fred blushed.

Winifred Burkle had kissed exactly one girl in her life, under the influence of some good weed, and while she'd enjoyed it, it wasn't an impulse she'd ever felt again. Until Willow, anyway, and only after Willow had Exalted. Did being Exaltation-mates count as 'under the influence'?

It didn't make much sense. As Willow charred and dried out, Fred felt increasing pity for her, but the urge to cuddle and smooch remained. Sooner or later Willow would be looking like a dessicated mummy, and Fred suspected nothing about her feelings would change, except that pity.

So Fred quipped, "Trying to get a look up under my tentacles, Buffy?" The other girl clearly was having similar issues. It wasn't really fair. But Fred didn't feel like being fair.

Buffy stammered out, "Thanks b-but no thanks." Then she came to an abrupt halt. "You're not my type," she said weakly. The cat, after all, was out of the bag. "How are you guys doing with the dreams?" she asked.

Shadow, Willow, and especially Tara didn't seem to share in Buffy's grace underwater. Tara in particular gulped in water with a mixed look of wonder and discomfort. Willow spoke up. "Salina hasn't bothered me too much since we saw the Deathlords, but I keep dreaming her life. It wouldn't be so bad if I could actually remember her spells but they all dance away when I'm awake."

Fred nodded. "I remember you. Working together mostly, but...um..."

"Some other things," Willow agreed. 

"Maybe most Lunars don't mind," Fred said irritably, "but I'm not a big fan of remembering being a guy. It's weird."

"Not an issue on my side," Buffy said with a shrug.

"Remembering being a girl isn't so bad," Xander said, sounding a bit puzzled. "Being a girl isn't so bad." Anya raised an eyebrow at him. "Maybe being a girl is just better? I dunno."

"I'm hazy still," Shadow said. "The memories of chatting up nobles are better than fighting, but I'm not a big fan of the male side of things either."

"I guess that leaves me," Anya said, "but Lytek had mine properly pruned, and anyway I've got a thousand years of my own memories. I only remember what I trained to. To be fair, what I do remember of being a man isn't as bad as I expected. And a few bad flashes of killing people, which is strange since I never minded myself."

"Good that you're all coping okay," Buffy said.

"Buffy," Fred said, "you need to know that we have the portal open. I'm sorry to wait this long to tell you, but we are closer now. You also need to know that there are other Exalted popping up there, and that Faith is one of the good guys."

"Faith?" Buffy lunged upward in the water. "She's out?"

"Missing an eye still," Fred explained. "Lilah Morgan from Wolfram & Hart tried to kill her. She's letting the Exaltations on the other side out of the trap they're in. I have to tell you, she's not doing a great job of building up her own side unless we're not understanding her game. Anyway...I can send you home. No more risk of freeing the Old Ones."

Buffy frowned. "That'd be nice. I wanna think it through, though. I dreamed for a while about blood apes rampaging through Los Angeles. I don't want to release the Yozis on our world either. And...it...it sounds like Faith might be managing okay."

"Do you want to go see her?" Willow asked suddenly.

"No!" Buffy said at once, but a moment later, Shadow said thoughtfully, "Yeah." Buffy stared at her.

"We had good times. You remember that. And maybe I could go back, live a life that's not all killing." Abruptly Shadow looked down. "Never mind. Who am I kidding?"

Fred patted Shadow on the shoulder. "We'll talk about it. Let's swim, play around, learn. Ok?"

"Okay."

*****

Lightning shot from Willow's eyes and incinerated the palm tree. "I can do ice," she added, "and nonlethal pain, but nobody's gonna like that one."

"What about your defense, Will?" Xander sounded worried. "Ma-Ha-Suchi nearly got you twice even staying at range."

Willow shrugged. "So stab me. I can't show you what I've got otherwise."

"Will...you sure?" Xander unlimbered Wavecleaver.

"Give it a go," she said. "I'm mostly charged up. You've seen Buffy step up and shrug things off, right? I swear, Xander: give it your best. You can't hurt me."

Xander took a deep breath and drew back the sword. "I'm only doing this to help you practice, okay?" He swung, and as he did so, Willow dropped to her knees. "Will, no!" Xander tried desperately to stop, but the massive blade severed Willow's head from her body in a spray of blood.

Tara shrieked, but Willow reached up and caught her head before it could tumble twice, setting it back atop her neck. "Tara! I'm fine, I swear." She began to back away from Buffy, who was standing over by the shoreline. "I'm invulnerable, see?"

"You d-don't look i-invulnerable," Tara quavered. "I'm sorry. I've already seen you die once. I-I know you need t-to learn but it's just scary. Okay?"

Willow nodded. "I'm sorry. I, um...I know something silly I can do."

"I didn't know deathknights had any silly powers," Tara said uncertainly. Xander frowned and started to agree.

"Hey Shadow," Willow called. "Did Anya destroy your swimsuit or just swipe it?"

The Buffy-clone squeaked and covered herself with her hands, blushing brighter red than her pallor made her seem capable of, though her bikini was perfectly intact and on her body.

"Negative emotion," Willow said with a wink. "Just because it's negative doesn't mean it can't be fun."

Struggling to calm down, Shadow grumbled, "Are you sure the Neverborn approve of practical jokes?"

"I doubt they do," Willow said. "As long as it doesn't get me in trouble I'd just as soon do what they don't approve of."

"We did agree," Tara said, "but let's not be too mean to each other. Shadow, I've seen you fight a little but nothing else. What other things can you do?"

Shadow grinned a little too wide; this plainly made her nervous even after seeing Willow survive beheading. "I've been trying to take your advice too, but you know how I feel about telepathy." Her mouth closed, she added, "At least It's not mind-reading."

"That's good," Tara said with a smile. "It feels uncomfortable, but it's nice to know even the Neverborn can't make everything completely bad." She shivered, though she didn't seem aware of it. "I apologize for being conflicted. On the one hand, you all need to know what you're capable of. We've already seen not knowing nearly destroy Buffy. On the other...too much power, especially when it comes from malevolent sources, can do the same to people, even when the source doesn't control it."

Buffy and Shadow shrugged at the same time before Shadow decided to defer to her older self. "Hey, it's fine. Being conflicted's what we're all about around here."

Tara nodded. "If the Architect is any indication I may find out some day."

"I'm kind of a fluke," Buffy admitted. "Most people don't Exalt before they're ready, even Infernals, because you have to choose it. I hope you don't end up like me. But I also hope we don't end up needing you before you get ready. Understand? I'd hate for any of us to get killed...especially you."

"That's very sweet," Anya said from down the beach. "Hey, come see these pearls!"

*****

"So, um, Leviathan asked me for a favor before I left," Fred said. "Nominally I think it was repayment for taking my place in Luthe, but I actually think he wants to stay in my debt. He didn't really treat it like a quid pro quo. I think I impressed him by kicking his butt."

"Go on," Anya said. "What's the secret?"

"I found out on the other side. I'm pregnant." There was a moment of stunned silence.

"By Leviathan?" That was Xander, of course.

"Like you couldn't be?" Anya said acerbically.

"We used protection!"

Buffy and Shadow stared. "I think I missed something," they said simultaneously.

"Leviathan asked me not to," Fred said. "I think it's at least partly a vote of confidence. He wants his kid to grow up in my Luthe."

"Also Xander is the reincarnation of Leviathan's lover," Anya explained.

"Oh," Shadow said. "Well, that...explains a lot."

"Does that mean you're not going home?" Buffy asked.

"Yes and no," Fred said. "Buffy, if the rumors we hear are true, we're just the tip of the iceberg. Solars are coming back all over Creation, and the other Exalts are being shaken up by it. Within our lifetimes...um, a tiny miniscule fraction of our lifetimes...Creation could go from the Iron Age to well past the technology we grew up with. Earth could make a similar leap, actually. And in the First Age, travel between known dimensions was commonplace for Exalts. I'm not saying we shouldn't help deal with the crisis back home. I'm just saying we may be able to make it a regular commute before I turn thirty-five."

*****

The ship drifted slowly through a great patch of seaweed that rippled in the current. There were supposedly Fair Folk raiders living in the area, but they'd seen neither hide nor hair.

"So we reroute these connectors and we can power a vessel like this one on ordinary electricity," Fred said. "We need a generator room of some kind or maybe a superefficient battery."

"Can we do that?" Xander asked.

Buffy winked at him. "You tell me."

He slapped his forehead. "We're Exalted. The answer to 'can we' is always 'yes'. Sometimes 'should we' is 'no'."

"We can convert essence power to true electricity efficiently with a moonsilver thaumocouple," Willow said. "They were pretty common in residential districts in the mid First Age, but they've all probably been cannibalized long since. If we can make one, we can power most stuff off hearthstones until we have something better."

"Better than a hearthstone?" Anya wanted to know.

"We're trying to use essence power only where nothing else can work," Fred said. "The First Age collapsed because it took Solars to run it. A lot of Lunars just want to abandon technology, but that's a waste even if there weren't all kinds of monsters out there waiting to invade."

"Have we actually got a right to make these kinds of decisions for the world?" Shadow asked. Tara nodded approvingly but then gestured to the others.

"Shadow," Anya said, "this group contains two ruling monarchs, an admiral, and a key member of the committee that plans the destiny of a quarter of the world. You and Willow won't lack for authority much longer either, but till you have it you're our advisors. We don't just have the right, we have the responsibility."

"There are still things we shouldn't do," Xander added, "but people trust the Exalted with authority because we have more competence in our little fingers than a city full of regular people. That took a little while to get used to, and we still need to find ways to combine that with the popular vote, but sitting back and not helping would be as bad as...as...."

"As me letting demons overrun the Earth," Buffy finished.

"Anyway," Tara finished, "I'm glad to hear you asking, because it looks to me like a lot of Exalts don't, but the short answer is yes. People need to be in control of their own destiny, but you can't just sit on your hands. Me, on the other hand--"

"Are our expert on whether we're being user-friendly enough," Willow said. "You're part of the unit."

"In that case," Shadow said, "I've got a priorities list." She held out some papers that Fred had thought she was just doodling on. "No maintenance, maintained by mortals, maintained by Dragon-Blooded, and maintained only by Celestials. We want all basic infrastructure in the first or second categories and mass production no higher than third. Fourth cat's gotta be reserved for prototypes, luxuries, and vital stuff we haven't figured out how else to make. Now I know the First Age did its best but they weren't expecting it to end, so they didn't plan ahead...."

Fred grinned. Shadow was starting to participate, and that was definitely a good.

Creation needed all the help it could get.

*****

"So here's one I haven't done before," Buffy said, "at least not in a fight. It would've been more use back on Earth, but I figure sooner or later...."

Her aura flared with bright green flame and seared the skin from her, but beneath was something else, something darker and more solid. She flexed fingers that had sharpened like long thorns into a fist and thumped it on her chest with a resounding thud. "Teakwood," she said. "About as hard as it gets, and all the way through. The brass turned out to be just a layer. This isn't. Only...no vampires here but Spike and Angel."

"Well, then," Xander said.

"Don't say it," Anya muttered. "Come on, they haven't done any harm here." She still seemed sore about what Buffy'd said to her. Well, she had a right.

"So you're made of wood," Tara joked. "That's got to be handy."

"Stawp," Buffy laughed. "Okay, if I ever see Faith again I'll fess up."

"She knew," Willow said. "She wouldn't have tried so hard if she didn't."

" _I_ didn't even know," Buffy groaned.

"What's with the 'if'?" Anya asked.

"I think I've decided," Buffy said quietly. "I have responsibilities here now. I'll help on Earth if they need me, and I won't free the Yozis, but until I'm voted out I have an obligation to be a good ruler to Gem. I'm staying unless it'll cause a worse disaster than leaving."

"I understand and I agree," Fred said. "I'm doing the same. Xander? Anya?"

Both of them nodded. "I've actually got a better life here than I did at home," Xander said. "I mean, things were picking up in construction, but the company can do just fine without me. And the people I really care about are all here."

"I left my old life behind a millennium ago," Anya said. "Staying here with my handsome Solar man suits me all right, and I'm making new friends in the Bureau."

"You guys are free to go home if you want," Buffy said to Willow, Tara, and Shadow. "And the others might live longer if they leave."

"Your life was pretty much wrecked," Shadow said. "I don't know what I'd be going back to unless it was guarding the Hellmouth."

"We could go back to college," Tara said, "but if everyone else stays, then we'll have to talk it through. We might stay with you."

"Just keep in mind commuting," Fred reminded them, and stood up to scan the horizon. "We're getting cl--Oh shit!"

Everyone leapt to their feet at once. On the horizon, Luthe was just coming into view, but it was surrounded by a fleet of ships that nearly doubled its apparent size...

And it was on fire.


	25. Brains and Bondage

"I know," Five Days' Darkness said, "that you think of yourself as stupid. Harmony's example is of little help to you because she is a Twilight, and you a Night. I understand this."

Faith nodded, not speaking. Five was only a god. He didn't know what it was like to grow up with a drunken mother. To fail your classes again and again because there was no way to study. To be told over and over how dumb you were. He didn't know.

"The beginning of all knowledge is sense experience, Faith, and charms to enhance your senses come easily to Nights. If you open your eyes, your mind will surely follow."

Faith sat with her legs crossed. Her eye was open. What else was she supposed to see?

"Never forget, Faith, that I am only a guide. The power comes from within you. Now...look." Five took her hand and held it in front of her face. "Look."

It was her hand! What was she supposed to--?

In her mind's eye her hand separated into a million pieces. Skin. She saw skin. Thousands of tiny segments, pores and hairs wedged between them. The whorled ridges of her prints. Veins just beneath the surface, throbbing ever so faintly. The fine twitches of individual fibers of muscle. The hidden sculptures of bone.

She dropped her hand away, but the details remained. It was impossible _not_ to see them. She could see the threads in her clothes. She could see the lines on the paneled walls across the room. She could see...Five Days' Darkness was smooth, like he wasn't any substance at all. "Shit. And I thought my eyesight was good before."

A click, and the room shifted. Tones went a little muted. Shadows were just a touch darker. Five had turned off the lights. " _Shit._ This is some Superman shit here."

"Wait'll you see how Daredevil has it," Five said. "Well, if he weren't blind. Many things in science are not as easy as mere passive observation, and yet if humans could see germs with the naked eye, for instance--"

What if she were to lose the other eye somehow? Faith closed the one that remained and focused again. "Faith, what are you doing? Sensory acuity only begins with the sense organs, and even an Exalted brain doesn't adjust instantly the first time."

Dust and old sweat and incense and cleaner fluids exploded in her nose, followed by a subtler smell, musty and dank, that seemed to emanate from Five Days' Darkness. Faith leapt up and grabbed her Pepsi. Caramel? It was caramel this stuff tasted like? Cola nut, sugar, a half-scent like...stale air, only nice somehow? Carbonation, she was smelling the carbonation. She cracked open a can of Coke without waiting and was rewarded by a slightly stronger version of the same. She poured the stuff into her mouth. Sweeter. Not much difference otherwise. Kind of disappointing really.

"Faith? Hold your horses. I know this must be a rush--" Hell yes it was a rush! Bad smells were still bad, but nothing smelled worse except to make it...um, smellable at all. Everything else was intensely better. She lifted her shirt to smell the fabric. Cotton. Flowery chemical residue still in there. Hell, she lifted her arm and sniffed her own pit like a dog. Even that wasn't bad. Kind of familiar but not. "Faith, you might not want to--" She closed her eye again, then thought for a moment and held her nose. "Faith!"

Whispers became roars, then damped down again, a weird staccato effect as her senses struggled briefly to compensate. Traffic outside rose to audible volume, followed by conversations that somehow failed to overlap. There was a moment of intense chafing that passed but left her feeling every crease, every seam, every _thread_ of her clothes.

"Faith, this may not have been wise." Five's tones were sufficiently human to convey meaning, but she could suddenly hear the absence of overtones and undertones, making his voice strangely flat. Mini-breezes flitted past her skin. She could hear her breathing, her heartbeat, the motion of her guts, the faint creak of her joints. None of that from Five. His body was fake in a lot of ways, and she could count them all one by one.

Amy: perspiration, more chemical flowers, strange ozone something. B-bot, her oil scent oddly faint but definitely there. "I'm sorry about my costume but there was a fight with three Fyarl demons and they tore it and covered it in sticky gunk and--"

"It's okay, I promise. Chill. We'll make you a new one." Sex? Someone was turned on. Oops, that was Faith. Damn this was wild.

Amy finally stepped through the door and Faith seized her by the arm. "Holy crap we need to screw."

Amy stared at her. "Faith? Are you stoned?" Worry. Amy was worried for her. Her muscles shifted as she spoke, changing the shadow patterns on her face.

"Stones?" B-bot wondered. "She's not bruised at all." The motors under her face flexed her obvious plastic skin in unnatural ways.

"I'm not stoned but I should be. Holy shit Ames get me some weed. Hell, get me some acid."

"Faith has decided it's a good idea to amplify all of her senses at once," Five Days' Darkness cut in. "While this won't be the standard effect, her brain is still lagging just a bit from overload."

"Faith? Are you sniffing me?"

Faith tried to say she was sorry, but her voice had turned sugary-sweet in her mouth. Amy spoke again. Her words were green and salty. Faith squinted to see them better.

B-bot opened her mouth and everything went black.

**Chapter 51--Brains and Bondage**

"Faith? Are you with us, Faith?" A silvery light was shining in her eye. Kate. Her caste mark was stabilizing. This month it had shifted almost to half but it was changing back.

"Here," she said. Her mouth was dry. Everything was dull, flat, colorless, and bland. Not permanent. Well, maybe that was for the best. "Things started turning...wrong. People looked...floral and sounded red and smelled high-pitched."

"You had a bout of extreme synaesthesia," Five said. "You can't overload an Exaltation, but under certain circumstances you can overload the person attached to it. Don't worry. Next time you do that, your Exaltation will have its compensatory mechanisms ready. Please don't try it again next time you upgrade your senses, though."

"There's another upgrade? Hot damn!"

"Fortunately you'll have to develop your natural powers of observation a bit more." All the people around her gave relieved sighs. "Faith, this was not a particularly smart thing to do."

"Ya think?" Faith shook her head regretfully. There were things about her not even Exaltation could change.

*****

"It's purely a matter of self-confidence," Five Days' Darkness explained. "Harmony believed, deep down, that she could better herself, though she had a crisis while serving as alembic. Her Exaltation amplified the traits it was meant to, at first without her conscious direction or opposition. Faith is the opposite. At her core, she doesn't believe herself capable or deserving of greater intellect. She doesn't try hard enough, so her Exaltation fails to provide."

"Should we even worry about this right now?" Robin asked. "The election's less than a month away."

"Faith's the strongest of us," Kate reminded him. "In principle she's more powerful than Lilah. But Lilah out-thinks and out-plans us at every turn. Odds are Faith could snap her neck like a twig, but something always stops her from coming to grips and the more I think about it the more likely it seems that Lilah has all of it planned out."

"If we can't figure out her game she'll just keep checkmating us," Amy said.

"And if we do figure it out?" Robin countered. "What then?"

"Yahtzee!" Harmony said, smiling.

"Harm has it," Sam agreed. "We can't just meet her strategy; we have to change the game to something we can win."

"And to do that, we need to get our strongest member firing on all cylinders," Shoat said. "So...if anyone has an idea let's hear it."

"Faith's already tried strategy," Amy said. "It didn't work out for her and that's part of what's got her wrecked now."

"Any other smart person stuff she's good at?" Oz asked.

"Demons," Lorne said. "Girl knows her paranatural phenomena. And maybe I can get her to sing for me."

"It's a long shot," Amy said, "but can we initiate her as a witch? That might convince her, and it's different enough not to trip her up on being 'educated'."

"Books of sorcery on tap here," Kate said. "It's worth a try."

Riley shrugged. "So let's bring on the demons."

*****

"Hey darlin' gonna make it happen/Get the world in a love embrace/Fire all of your guns at once..." Faith trailed off. "I never realized how silly this sounds till I sang it without the music."

"Go on," Lorne urged. "You're doing fine." Her singing voice was only passable, which was a relief after hearing Amy and Harmony's clearly-unnatural improvement.

Faith pretended to strum a guitar--at least, Lorne thought that was what she was doing. "Fire all of your guns at once/And explode into space/Like a true nature's child/We were born, born to be wild/We can climb so high/I never want to die/Born to be wild/Born to be wild...."

Lorne scratched at his horns. "I can say this much: you have a lot of future ahead of you. Maybe plan on making it a good one."

"Got any advice for that?" Faith frowned at him, but she was only mildly irritated. At worst she might behead him.

He shrugged. "A little light reading?"

*****

"Will she even look at these?" Harmony dropped a stack of books onto the table.

Five Days' Darkness winced and removed the second one down. "Not this one. Some things are better lost."

"Like what?" Harm asked, peering at his face.

"There's too much necromancy in the world," Five said, "but no one's been able to reach past the Iron Circle in millennia." He hefted the book. "That could change if we're unlucky. Can I trust you to burn this?"

Harm nodded solemnly. "You got it." She took the heavy tome from him. Faith being a necromancer was about as scary as it got. "Anything better?"

"Hmm. This is listed as the 'Grand Grimoire', but in truth it reminds me of a heavily altered copy of the White Treatise." He closed it and held it out. "Perhaps it's merely similar due to similar subject matter. See what she thinks of this. Don't tell her precisely what it is. I'm certain she'd balk."

Harmony took it, taking careful note of which one it was. No good giving the necromancy book to Faith.

*****

"So I'm trying to plan out a last-minute agenda," Sam explained. "We can't let Lilah win. I'm no Bush fan either, which means our best bet is a tightly-targeted assassination. Got any ideas?"

"Treat it like a high-profile slay," Faith said. "In and out, leave no evidence. We'll have to make sure there's no body. And get past the Secret Service. Can't use a bomb or shotgun or anything like that; too much chance of hitting our boy Al." 

"We can't assume she's useless at close-quarters fighting," Sam pointed out, targeting Faith with her rifle. "We don't know much about what powers she might have developed by now, and Five Days' Darkness think she used the Black Claw martial arts style to force Joe Biden out."

"What about poison?" Faith asked. "It's not exactly in the Slayer handbook, but what the hell, I'm not exactly a Slayer, right?" Sam fired, but Faith had already kicked a manhole cover into the air, and the bullet ricocheted away. "Honestly we need to plan a series of attempts right up to Election Day. We don't know what she might be immune to."

"We can't get caught during any of that," Sam reminded her, taking aim again.

Faith held up one finger. "We need an inside man. Got a cardboard soldier we can replace a Secret Service agent with on hand?"

Sam laughed nervously. "I don't like the way you think, Faith, but it ought to work."

Harm entered the training room. "Hey, Faith, got a minute? I found a ritual we might use to take Lilah out of the running."

Faith blinked, then frowned. "Why not give it to Amy? She's the witch."

"She doesn't have the power to use it, Faith. You do though." Harm held up the book. "Just take a look at it and tell us what you think."

Faith took the book as if it were a dead fish. "What've I got to lose?"

"Nothing," Harmony said cheerfully. "Buffy used to do rituals like this all the time." She glanced at the other book in her hand. "Gotta go burn this. See ya later!" She trotted off.

"Burning books," Sam said. "It better be something important."

Faith held up the book in her hand and sighed. "I better go. I'll be all night on this."

*****

Five Days' Darkness sat there watching her as if he were thoroughly uninterested, but Harmony knew better. He was definitely hiding something, and he wouldn't be doing that if he didn't care. The question was what he was interested in, and he didn't show enough human reaction to figure that out.

"She said she'd try, but she didn't sound like she expected to do it."

Five sighed. "Trying to initiate a doubtful candidate into sorcery is always a long shot. There have been important Night caste sorcerors before, but Faith doesn't fit their profile. No reaction by comparing her to Buffy?"

"An eensy bit. Not sure it was positive though." Faith just sounded defeated to her.

"Buffy is a rival, but one she's generally felt was more competent and morally better than her. Persuading her to compete will usually be a toss-up." Five leaned forward. "What of you? Any decisions on what to pursue?"

Harm shrugged. "Like, nothing you've told us about has anything to do with modern technology. Have you got anything about First Age machines?"

"I have my memory," Five said, "and little more. But what I remember I will offer you. Your society is about equal to that of the Shogunate technologically, and yet has no command of essence--indeed, it seems to reject magic utterly. It would be interesting to see what happens when the two are combined. You did burn that necromancy book, though?"

Harmony nodded. "I did. Seems kind of a shame, though. And I've read a lot lately about not being able to suppress knowledge forever. Are you sure--?"

"Harmony, I doubt we can suppress it forever. I will take what time I can buy, however. Necromancy is not a kind or good art. It had its uses, but few of them were worth the harm done."

Harmony shrugged. "Whatever you say, big guy. I prolly couldn't make it work anyway." She turned and strolled away.

*****

Faith threw the book at Amy's face. It halted inches away as Faith snarled, "I can't do this! Why did you people even give me that thing?"

"Faith, stop, please! This wasn't about embarrassing you!" Amy was ready to yank Faith into the air if she had to, but that'd be a major escalation she wasn't ready for just yet.

"I just...Ames, I'm a weapon. I sneak around and I hit things till they die. Just point me where you want me to go already! Tell me to go kill Lilah and I'll go, tell me to blow up the White House, just tell me what you want me to do!"

"Faith," Amy said, her voice cracking, "you're a human being, and you have huge powers. You need to make your own decisions. You can't just let people give you orders."

"No! No, damnit! You don't understand what happens when I do my own thing, Amy!" Faith picked up a dagger and slammed its blade straight into the table. "There is something wrong with me. It's made me a murderer already, and being smart won't fix it, it'll only make it worse. I'm...I'm cursed, Amy. Everything I do turns to shit."

_**I know my curses, Amy. She's not cursed.** _

"You're not cursed, Faith. You've made some bad decisions-- mostly listening to the mayor is what I heard--but you're just you." Amy held out her hand. "Just calm down. Tell me...tell me what you want. Seriously, just make a wish. Free offer here. Would you rather be stronger? Prettier? Better at anything you want, Faith. Just ask."

"You can't do that." It wasn't often you heard Faith's voice waver that way. When she was confused and angry, sure. But really, truly uncertain? Not much. "You're an Exalted, but you're not a genie."

"Maybe I am. If ordinary vengeance demons can warp reality, the Old Ones must have been able to, right?" Amy raised her hand and snapped her fingers. "Why didn't they just wipe the Exalted out of existence? Because we could do it too. Right? Now tell me what you want."

Faith scoffed. "Okay, make me able...to...speak Chinese."

Amy thought of telling her there was more than one Chinese language, then just settled on Mandarin. She was pretty sure she could do that. "Done." She snapped her fingers again.

Faith spoke. At least, Amy thought she spoke. "I said, didn't work." Faith said as if wondering why Amy didn't understand.

"Say it again." Amy didn't know any Mandarin herself. Faith could be faking for some reason.

Faith made what Amy thought were probably the same sounds, but more slowly. She frowned and put her hand on her mouth. **_That's Mandarin,_** Hallie said. **_Now she's cursing. What a dirty mouth._**

"I'm speaking English now...right?" Faith said this very slowly and carefully. "My head hurts like it's fill...." She lapsed into gibberish again...so far as Amy could tell.

**_Nope. Horrifying accent, though. She says her head's filling up. I suppose it is._ **

"Faith? Hey, give it a moment to settle out. You just went bilingual. That's big." Amy touched her shoulder, and Faith didn't flinch back.

"Try," Faith said, still focusing on moving her lips carefully.

"I know you're trying," Amy began.

Faith shook her head furiously. "Hablo Español asi asi," she said even more carefully. Hallie was right; her Southie accent sounded atrocious. "Don't like remembering mom's boyfriends, though, so I only speak it when I gotta. It's nothing special. Grew up with it."

"Still. The point is--"

"Tthe point is you don't want me running around with the power to screw with reality, or people's heads. You can not @!!#;..." Faith shook her head angrily. "...can't _trust_ me."

"The only thing I don't trust you on, Faith, is filling up your brain _too damn fast_." Amy shook her head. "Faith, most of your mistakes have been about giving up your right to decide. First to that Post lady you talked about, then to the mayor. You've been irresponsible on your own, sure. Learn from that. But the closest you've ever been to evil is when you let other people run your life. Stop saying you're stupid, Faith. You are not. Uneducated? Sure. You are not stupid. Or you'd be dead by now."

"I'm no genius either," Faith muttered.

"You don't have to be," Amy said, taking her by the shoulder. "But if what Five says is right, then...you've got as much as three thousand years ahead of you." She didn't mention what he'd said about her--that the Infernals who hadn't become copies of the Yozis had suddenly dropped dead at a hundred-fifty or so. That was stlll plenty of time, she guessed. "That's a long time to be dumb."

Faith gaped. Hadn't she asked at all? "Three...hundred, right? You meant three hundred?"

Amy shook her head. "In the First Age, some Solars lived longer than that. They were working on ways to live forever."

Faith sat down hard on the floor. Amy crouched down next to her, but she didn't seem to notice. "What the hell am I gonna do with three thousand years? I was planning for like, five, maybe six or seven if I was lucky. Three..." Faith lapsed back into Mandarin.

Amy interrupted her again, this time with a kiss. Maybe that would hold her attention. "In three thousand years, you could learn a lot. Magic. Science. Everything. _You are not stupid._ And if you were, you wouldn't have to stay that way."

Faith stared at her blankly. "What the hell am I gonna do? Do all Exalted live that long?"

Amy shrugged. "Not the Dragon-Blooded. But even they don't get old till maybe five or six hundred. Abyssals like Shoat can live forever. In theory, anyway." She kissed Faith again. "If you want to die, I can help with that."

Faith raised her eyebrows at that. "Tryin' to teach me French? I'll teach you French." She slipped her tongue past Amy's lips, then broke away again. "I'll keep trying. Sorry for doubting you about Chinese."

"Be sorrier for doubting yourself. And let's find somewhere more private."

Faith winked. "Do we gotta?"

Amy considered that, then slipped a telekinetic tendril under Faith's shirt. "Not if you don't wanna."

*****

Harmony finished scanning the last few pages into the computer. That was that. She tossed the book into a metal bucket, added some loose paper, and set it alight as promised.

She was just curious. Besides, you had to be initiated to actually use this magic, according to Five Days' Darkness, and she wasn't, so there wasn't any danger just knowing it. Right? When she was done reading, she'd delete it. No harm done, ha ha.

Harm turned off the news--something about rumors that Faith was dating Britney Spears! lol nope--opened the document and began to read. "The Book of the Names of the Dead. Huh." This was gonna be a pretty good night.


	26. Death Is But a Door

The door jingled and opened, and Kate looked up. She wasn't getting a lot of customers these days. A tall, sandy-haired man in a three-piece suit stood there staring around in curiosity at her various wares. Most such people showed far more distaste.

"Can I help you, sir?"

The man sighed and strode through the isles over to the counter, where he sat his briefcase down hard. "My name's Garrison Kendall. I want to speak to my daughter."

*****

"Dad." She made her best effort to hold her voice completely flat and was surprised when it succeeded.

"Harmony," her father said warmly. "I don't understand why you haven't come home."

"I know you don't, Dad. You never have." Her parents had been insisting that she come home since she'd accidentally been caught on camera shortly after rising. "I was a vampire--"

"Harmony, I know you're a vampire. I never cared about that. You know who I work for. Wolfram & Hart has long been a supporter of equal rights for the undead." He stepped a little closer to her. "I believed in you. You could've chosen to kill us at any time, but you never did."

"Then you know I'm not a vampire any more." Surely Lilah had filled him in.

Her father scoffed. "Yes, of course. The prophesied shanshu." What? "Harmony, you are not some storied hero. Don't be ridiculous. You don't have to pretend for me like a member of the general public. I know your powers come from--"

"Dad, I'm a Solar! I'm about as far from being a vampire as it gets now!" Desperately she flared the half-disc on her forehead.

"A solar what?" He shook his head at the mark. "Tell it to Dracula. The old fool with his gypsy illusions."

"Dad! That's, like, totally rude!" He wouldn't use slurs in court, and he'd rarely used them in front of her.

"Vlad can take care of himself. You, on the other hand...." He shook his head sadly. "I admit that Buffy Summers fouled everything up. I went to such lengths with Richard. I tried to persuade him that he could never succeed in today's world as a giant snake, even with the firm and I representing him. He stood pat, so finally I resorted to telling him he'd need a secretary all the more without his hands, and he agreed to take you on."

"Well, it didn't work, Dad! I got turned by one of his minions!" The mayor's [i]secretary[/i]?

"Oh, that. You were never going to succeed as a human, especially not in his administration." Harmony stared. "I did what it took to give my daughter a future. I mean, what else were you going to do? Hope to marry someone old and rich?"

"Dad!"

"Harmony, we did the best we could by you, but you're not exactly the brightest bulb in the box. Kiddo, you graduated by the skin of your teeth." Garrison made a sad face. "We tried private tutors. Remember them? They walked out on you. I think the word they used was 'hopeless'. I really wanted you to follow in my footsteps, y'know? Go into law."

"And I just want you to take me seriously, Dad." Why couldn't he--?

"You run around in a leotard pretending to be a 'super hero' and you want me to take you seriously?" He began to laugh. "There was a time when I wouldn't have cared, you know. If you had just come home, if only to visit. Here you are. Living above a store with your little team. I'm tired of it, Harmony. Come home or I don't want to hear any more about you."

"Get out."

"And how will you take care of yourself? At least as a secretary you'd have had a job. What are you now?"

The anger was boiling over at last. "I'm a princess. I'm the Twilight. I'm fine, dad. I'm fine without you. I'm sorry I didn't see you all that time, but if this is how it's going to be between us, I don't need you any more. Tell mom I'm sorry."

"A prin--? Your mother is dead, Harmony. She died two months ago. Of cancer. We couldn't find you. It's your own fault. Don't get all righteous on me."

"You made me a vampire, dad. Don't tell me not to get righteous. I'm sorry I didn't see mom. If she didn't know, I'm sorry I didn't get to say goodbye. If she did...I'm sorry I didn't get to scream at her and spit in her face."

"How dare you--?"

Harmony shook her fist at him. Eyes bulging, face red, her father raised his in return.

And at that precise moment, a voice said, "Hey Harm, I was--" and Shoat walked into the room.

**Chapter 52--Death Is But a Door**

"Hi folks, this is Jean Burroughs with CNN and I'm here with the woman who's been dubbed the Emerald Angel. While she has a variety of telekinetic powers, her biggest draw on the general public has been her ability to literally grant wishes. The Angel--who has broken with comic book tradition by freely giving her name as Amy Madison--has been handing out ability boosts like candy, apparently with no side effects of any kind. Amy, can you grant _any_ wish?"

The crowd pressed around Amy, cheering, and for now she basked in the attention. Eventually she'd have to go be alone and recharge. Just not yet. "I honestly don't know the limits of my powers yet but so far I can't make things, only alter people. What do _you_ want, Jean?"

The reporter blinked and stammered jusf for a second--that must've broken her planned script. "I-I just want to get my story."

 _I'm famous. Mom never got to be famous._ "I can make you a better public speaker. Or a better investigative reporter. I can make you more telegenic. Go on. Make a wish, Jean." Jean wasn't supposed to get involved in her stories, but Amy didn't give a rat's ass about that.

Jean must've decided it'd make good news spectacle. "Okay, I'll bite. Make me a better investigative reporter." Well, that wouldn't do much right here. Maybe she was just devoted to her job.

Amy snapped her fingers and used some of the less-contained energy to make a faint display of green and white sparks. "Done. Go make good use of it." _I'm more powerful than Mom ever was. Feels real good._

The reporter opened her mouth, but just then a man shoved his way through the barrier carrying a scrawny, pallid child. "It's my daughter. Her heart--she was on the transplant list--they took her off, said her condition's too bad. How's she ever going to get better? I know they can't waste hearts. I just...can't you do something for her?"

 _ **I...can we try to help?**_ Hallie sounded as if she might actually be crying. Of course; kids had been her thing. _**I'd have helped her even if it wasn't her dad's fault. It...might not have gone well, I suppose.**_

Amy took the little girl from her father's arms. "I can try. I've never healed anyone before."

"Thank you, oh thank you." The man wept, his eyes dry but red as if all his tears were exhausted.

Feeling foolish, Amy put a hand on the girl's forehead like a televangelist, though she said only, "Done." The child gasped and raised her head, her color improving at once. "Take her to a doctor and have her looked at," Amy said urgently, her voice a little husky. "I'm not God. I think I fixed her heart, but she's not well yet."

The man fell to his knees and clung to Amy, sobbing. Amy carefully passed the girl off to him.

"You just saw it here live on CNN! Amy Madison just apparently healed a dying little girl on live television! We'll go for now and let them be--" The crowd surged towards them, people shouting, begging, praying. "--but we'll keep you updated!"

People spilled over the barriers, and suddenly Amy was pressed on all sides by a mass of bodies. The screams and the prayers and even a few early denunciations were all around her now.

"Are you really an angel?" "Can you heal my cancer?" "Please, my son--" "--my wife--" "--my boyfriend--" "Only God can--" "--please--" "--please--"

What was she supposed to do? She only had so much energy. Fine. They wanted healing, she'd heal. She raised her hand and pointed at random. In the shouting crowd it was all she could do. "You! You! You! You! And you! Done!" She had no idea what she was even granting them, but all the same she felt a constant stream of power flood from her. A white flame burst from her forehead, spreading, turning faintly greenish as it encompassed her whole body. Sand glimmered around her, spinning around her legs, sand and a growing assortment of tiny crystal beads that orbited her body. The screams of the crowd became fearful. Here and there she heard retching. But she also saw a man's withered arm grow whole and straight, and there was some satisfaction in that. With the crowd reeling, she grabbed the microphone from Ms. Burroughs, shouted "Vote Republican!", and dashed away as fast as she could. The idea of all these people voting for that idiot from Texas was vile, but surely he had to be a better president than Lilah Morgan.

Right?

*****

Kate Lockley hadn't realized until Fred was gone what a useful lesson the skinny little genius had taught her. Borrowing the senses of security cameras was one thing--they were more common on Earth than anywhere in Creation, even Luthe apparently--but in her own bedroom Kate still had her old police-band radio.

Right now Kate was listening to police reporting in all over town even while she stood behind the counter. The sound quality was horrible, and most of it was about random traffic violations. But from time to time something important went down, and right now there was a riot going on across town where Amy was.

Kate took a couple of steps toward the door and heard shouting coming from upstairs. Oh, right. She'd let Harmony's father in, the lawyer from Wolfram &...shit. Surely he wouldn't try to hurt her, couldn't succeed if he did.

Kate turned, cursing to herself, and ran upstairs. She'd been distracted and now there was going to be trouble. She felt queasily sure of that.

"Hey, Harm, I was just--" Shoat had just stepped into the room in front of her. "Harmony, are you about to hurt him? Is he one of the bad guys?"

"Yes," Harmony said bitterly. "He's pretty bad. But I'm not going to waste my time on him. I figured I'd scare him a little." She gestured idly at her computer screen, which showed some sort of ancient text in curly script. "But I can't do necromancy since I'm not initiated. I might as well say 'Libram incendiere' and expect books to catch fire." She waved her hands around at the books stacked all over her room. "See, no fire!"

"Harmony," Kate began, "initiation doesn't necessarily require--"

"This piece of shit calling himself my father thought I was so useless and incompetent he had me turned into a vampire so I could be secretary to a giant snake demon," Harmony spat, "and I'd say he deserved the humiliation of being so scared he pees his pants more than dying, if it wasn't his fault about everyone who died at Graduation that year! And God knows who else!" Harmony waved her hand at him and snarled a few consonant-laden words. "See, n--" she began, just before starting to hack and gag. And a torrent of inky black gushed from her mouth.

*****

Faith floated high above the city, wishing she could be more leisurely about it, wishing she could float higher still. But she had to keep moving, like a shark, or she would fall, and she was bounded by a limit about eighty feet above the buildings. Still, it was peaceful up here, and it was easy to go unseen.

Up here she could practice focusing her senses without any risk of being overwhelmed. She listened, and heard the faint rumble of the city differentiate into thousands of conversations, air condiitioners, cars running, dogs barking, televisions and radios blaring. And any one of them, with a little effort, she could single out and focus on.

It really was a lot like being Superman. She really wished she'd learned to fly earlier. Feeling like Superman made her feel less like the villain.

On the other hand it made her wonder whether she had any limits at all. _Only the ones you set for yourself,_ came a whisper from the bsck of her mind, _so choose wisely._ That was not a comforting thought, either its contents or its source. She'd woken up this morning from dreams of being someone else entirely, and for the first hour she was awake, if you'd asked her name she could only have said "Ebon Shadow's Graceful Daughter". Shadow's Grace wasn't the only incarnation who might flicker through her head at times, but the two of them _resonated_. The other woman had hated being a Night for a long time, had felt guilty about stalking the guilty and disposing of them. She'd moved on from where Faith had ended up, but was that progress or just a circle between different points? And if Faith let herself slide at the wrong time, was it possible she could disappear into that other self? Shadow's Grace had lived for thousands of years, from just after the war with the Old Ones almost to the Solars' defeat. If Faith let her, she could probably teach Faith almost anything; Five Days' Darkness claimed that was the real source of his current teachings, so she owed him nothing new. Just one service each for herself and Kendra. But Shadow's Grace felt like a well as deep as the ocean, and if Faith fell in she was pretty sure there wouldn't be so much as an echo, so she did her best to keep the memories closed off. She'd probably been doing it for years without realizing.

 _You don't have to be afraid of me,_ Shadow's Grace whispered. _I'm you._

 _Sounds to me like the best reason to be afraid of you I could have._ She knew the truth, whatever Amy said. She was cursed. Somehow. She was doomed to fail.

Amy. Amy was shouting at someone.

Faith dropped her hands and fell from the sky. Where? She'd been scheduled for a news interview today, somewhere downtown. Faith dropped lower, zooming through thick clusters of tall buildings. There. Amy was burning with a green-white flame, with a huge crowd trying to advance on her. Some kept falling to their knees, but whether to vomit or worship it was impossible to tell. Maybe both. Amy's full aura had unfortunate effects on people, though not as bad as Shoat's.

Faith swooshed by, seizing Amy by the waist. "Lois, you've gotta stop getting into trouble."

"Clark?" Amy winked and snickered. "But it's so much fun having you rescue me." With a sigh of frustration, she added, "I burned myself out trying to convince people I could only do so much. I haven't got much left. How am I supposed to help people when they mob me if I try?"

"Don't look at me," Faith said, "though I think Kate told me a story about thst. Jesus, maybe." She paused. "I can hear them back there. They're prayin' to you. As far as they're concerned, you're the next thing to God."

"Faith, I'm not God." Amy sounded a little breathless. "I don't think God runs out of energy this fast."

"You'll get stronger," Faith said, unsure how she felt about that. The stronger they were, the more good they could do...or the more harm.

*****

"Magic is not a toy!" Shoat yelled, and slapped Harmony in the face. Not that it helped much. The dark mass had already escaped from her.

"I didn't mean to--I didn't think I could--"

"Harmony," Kate grumbled, "didn't the book explain about initiation? People don't have to consciously try to be initiated." She reached out to try and pry the mass of shadow from Harmony's dad, but her hands simply passed through it. "Sometimes it just happens, and are you really surprised that you might have an affinity for necromancy after being undead?"

"Er...when you put it that way...no. And it didn't." Her punch at the shadow was equally ineffective. Shoat thought about shooting it, but that wasn't likely to end well.

"Good job," Shoat said sarcastically. "I'm sure your dad is very scared now that he's about to die!"

"I'm not actually sure how much I care," Harmony snarled. "It's his fault I was ever a vampire, and now he's working for Lilah Morgan!"

"He's your dad!" Shoat yelled back. "Do you really want to have killed your dad?"

To her horror, Harmony hesitated to think it over. "Not really, I guess," she said with disturbing slowness. "Help me stop the damn thing." Unable to affect the shadow directly, she tried dragging her father away from it.

"Here," Kate said irritably, and pulled back to punch the shadow thing. Her fist actually struck it this time and slammed it backwards into the wall. The ooze slapped wetly against it and puddled there. "I think we got it. Must have to use magic to hurt it."

Harmony crouched over her father, trying to see if he still breathed, and Shoat sighed and retreated into the shadows. _Good luck, Harm._

*****

"She did what?!" Lilah stalked back and forth through the penthouse apartment. She was making the rounds through the country, in Houston at the moment, but that couldn't insulate her from national news.

"No worries," Five Days' Darkness said. "The odds are that at this point, most people's opinions are set. We have bigger things to worry about, Lilah. Why have you stopped releasing Exaltations?"

"I thought that was obvious," Lilah said irritably. "We've had no luck at all getting people reliably on our side. Even Warren Mears has vanished, and, let's face it, he was far from ideal as an employee."

"All that is true," Mara acknowledged, but you've forgotten a critical piece of the puzzle. We didn't arrange the release of the Exaltations to make you President. They're far too powerful as tools for such--may I say it?--a trivial purpose. Drusilla? I don't suppose you can fill her in?"

"Hephaestus is dying," the mad vampire chanted. "Dying like Lucy and Mina, and soon he'll be like the others. Like me. And then Gaia will die too, and all things will be at peace in Oblivion."

"I told you about that," Mara said, "but you don't seem to have internalized the lesson _or_ 4emembered Darla's offer."

"To take over from the Senior Partners? I have to admit I thought that was you." Lilah paused. "You want me to supplant you?"

"Not supplant," said the last of them. D'Hoffryn always seemed angry these days, though she couldn't seem to pry out why. "Subsume. Rule. Become."

"Lilah," Five asked, "have I told you how long Infernals live? Only a hundred-fifty years or so. A while longer with a profound grasp of essence, but far from the five thousand years--or more--you might live as a Solar. But you _could_ live forever. Go on. Ask me how."

Lilah raised her eyebrows doubtfully. "Tell me."

"We need new Primordials."

*****

Garrison choked and coughed and opened his eyes. "One chance," Harmony said. "Leave now while I'm in the mood to let you. You won't get another."

The man looked at his daughter, and all Kate could see in his eyes was hate and fear. He turned and bolted from the room, and she resisted the urge to hunt him down.

Instead she turned back to Harmony. "Well, no doubt Five Days' Darkness will be proud to have a budding necromancer among us."

"I didn't mean to," Harmony murmured. "I was just curious."

"Curiosity killed Creation," Shoat said just as quietly.

Kate frowned at her. "Even if that's true, it's a little excessive to say."

"I didn't think I was initiated," Harmony insisted. "And if I wasn't then I couldn't have done the spell."

"I guess that's so," Shoat said. "But if I were you I'd treat necromancy like a gun from now on. Assume it's loaded and don't point it anything you're not ready to destroy."

Harmony booted up her computer. "I should probably delete the rest of this," she muttered. "It'll just get me into trouble."

"Probably," Kate agreed. "But you know what? I think we're in the sort of situation where we have to trust each other's judgement. You've seen what necromancy can do, Harmony, and you know now that you're initiated. It's your choice whether learning more is worth the risk."

"You're going to trust _my_ judgement?" Harmony almost sounded offended.

"Well...alternatively, I can spend all my time and energy holding your hand," Kate suggested. "You've seen that necromancy is a dangerous tool. On the other hand, that could kill demons. Or Lilah, or any other number of valid threats. You might not even have been wrong to kill your father. I'm glad you didn't, but there would be reason. You're going to have to trust yourself, just like Faith, and we're going to have to trust you."

Harmony looked at the floor. "I...sure. How bad can it be?"

*****

"Done," Warren said, and climbed down from the framework. The Master's sense of humor was genuinely twisted, but he could appreciate this joke too. The new robot was a perfect replica of young Arnold Schwarzenegger. "We're ready to power him up."

"Here," Raiton said, and handed him a tiny, spiked ball of obsidian. "Place it in the power socket. Its shape will adjust."

Warren narrowed his eyes. Were they putting him on? He placed the little ball into the socket. Sure enough, somehow it fit smoothly inside.

Black lightning erupted from the frame, forcing him to leap backwards. It cascaded around the Arniebot in a vast crackling display, and suddenly the robot's eyes turned painfully purple, like a black light. He hadn't designed them like that.

"Transfer successful," the Arniebot intoned.

"Transfer? From what? There wasn't supposed to be any transfer," Warren sputtered. He was going to download Skynet in a few minutes, but that wasn't done yet.

"Who is this?" the Arniebot asked.

"Nothing," Weeping Raiton said. "A once-useful tool, exhausted now with your arrival. I am Weeping Raiton Cast Aside. This is the Master of Yesterday and Tomorrow. You may dispose of that one now, if you choose."

Warren flinched away from the robot's grasping hand. It laughed harshly at him and seized him by the throat. "What are you?" he managed to wheeze before it cut off his air entirely.

"I am that which you have summoned into this world, fool. I am king of the Gremlin City. I am the Viator of Nullspace." It snapped his neck like a twig. "And, incidentally, your death."


	27. Time Is But a Window

"Thousands of years ago," Five Days' Darkness began, "a few of the Green Sun Princes reached sufficient power that they began to copy the abilities that made the Yozis themselves."

"The Yozis didn't notice or care," D'Hoffryn said. "By that time they were at war with each other. And, in any case, in copying their patrons' power, the Infernals took on their nature also."

"With the result," Mara added, "that they immediately joined their predecessors in the squabble. Their Exaltations no longer recognized them as human and left, fortunately."

"And the Yozis slaughtered one another and became new Neverborn. You told me that," Lilah grumbled. "I don't see what benefit I'm supposed to be giving you if I just repeat that."

"Before the Yozi War began," Mara explained further, "there was research going on into heretical powers created from synthesizing the abilities of two or more Yozis. Ultimately, we think it might have become possible to metamorphose into a new Primordial entirely, not just a copy of the Yozis, but when the war broke out, all that was lost in favor of grabbing power and jockeying for position."

"Even new Primordials won't be able to destroy the Neverborn," Five said, "but they might create a balance of power. Unfortunately, we need more than one to make much difference, and various circumstances prevented us from uncovering the Six-Metal Prison until our best candidate was gone."

 _ **Buffy Summers?**_ Darla all but spluttered, and Lilah echoed her. "Buffy Summers was your best candidate to...restructure the universe around? By all the Lower Beings--"

"I had my own favored candidate," D'Hoffryn muttered, "but she went after Buffy."

"Sadly," Mara said, "the nature of the Infernal Exaltations we need to make new Primordials is to seek out moral failure. While the vices have their uses, they tend to create poor candidates for titanic super-deities."

"Buffy is flawed, like all humans," Five added, "but she'd grown into genuine heroism. I'd rather we'd had a Defiler or a Fiend to start with--more intellectual--but beggars can't be choosers."

"A girl just out of her teens--" Lilah began.

"We _are_ beggars here," D'Hoffryn reminded her. "At this rate the world has no more than five years to live, possibly much less. Autochthon is dying once more, and potential apocalypses are increasing in frequency. Elevating a twenty-year-old ex-cheerleader to a keystone of existence is the _good_ option, Lilah."

"And the _bad_ option?" Lilah rose from the bed and began to pace.

"No offense, Lilah: you," Five said. "It's not primarily a question of your suitability. We are faced with the need to ramp up your control of essential force with extreme speed. Otherwise you won't be ready before the world snuffs it. In fact, we're not entirely certain we can get you there in time."

Lilah thought that over. Then she thought it over again. Finally Darla supplied a suitable response for her to repeat. "Fuck me sideways and complain about the fit."

**Chapter 53--Time Is But a Window**

"Pithy," D'Hoffryn said. "I like it."

"Why the hell have you let me run around doing my own thing? It's been fun, but I happen to prefer my worlds decadent, corrupt, and fun to be around, as opposed to deceased!" She began to stride rapidly around the room. "Coffee. I need some damn coffee."

Lilah reached out and tapped a random vase, and a surge of black energy enveloped it. The vase seethed and melted, transforming into a mug, and Lilah picked it up and tasted the contents. "Ahh. Good coffee. Do I get to be the Principle of Coffee?"

The Senior Partners glanced at each other, and Mara began to snicker. "I knew there was a reason I liked you besides being good in bed."

"More to the point," Five Days' Darkness said, "unless you like the idea of simply becoming another copy of Cecelyne or the Ebon Dragon, and almost certainly losing yourself in their memories, it was important and will remain important to let you focus your own will and make your own decisions. We don't know the exact procedure to bring about your metamorphosis, but it will involve declaring your own self as a new cosmic principle. You won't succeed at that with us pulling your strings."

"So, yes," D'Hoffryn said. "Depending on how important it is to you, you might in some small measure become the Principle of Coffee." He waggled his eyebrows at Lilah, who sputtered and began to choke on her drink. "Malfeas encompasses dance, and Oramus music. Though to be sure, all the Primordials enjoyed those things. But no art is beneath them, or you."

"Any dance? Any music?" That had interesting possibilities.

"Yes," Mara said tiredly. "Malfeas can lap dance with the best of them, and I've seen a city conquered with a cheerleading routine. As for Oramus, he used to prefer this atonal piping sort of thing, but if you want a snappy pop number it'll work just fine. Sorry. It's just that you're not the first to ask."

"And your idea of my future is that I spend it eternally locked in combat with the Neverborn?" That was probably the least appealing aspect of the idea.

"Someone has to, or there will be no future at all," Five said. He took the empty cup from her. "For what it's worth, you'll become a composite being like the Primordials, so you'll be able to do other things at the same time."

"And there's no way to put an end to the Neverborn?"

"We haven't found one in upwards of ten thousand years," Mara said reluctantly. "Think of the difference between a human and a zombie. The latter has no weak spots, no vital organs except, in some cases, the brain. Some types lack even that and have to be hacked to pieces...which doesn't kill them, only leaves them helpless. Now apply that concept to the Primordials. No fetich or soul hierarchy, no imperfections, just a gigantic form of nigh-invulnerable quasi-flesh."

"Once, I hear, some rash Solars decided to use a weapon comparable to nuclear warheads in an attempt to get rid of the Neverborn once and for all." D'Hoffryn shook his head. "Left a radioactive crater a mile wide and woke a Neverborn who, until that point, had slumbered peacefully. Looked as if it had popped an infected pimple. Fortunately they didn't try again."

"In principle," Five said, "the Neverborn could pass on like any other ghosts if the things that tie them to existence were destroyed. Unfortunately, said fetters consist of Existence itself, which is why they want to finish its destruction."

"So the whole of our existence," Lilah said slowly, "is a cosmic zombie apocalypse. And Gaia and Autochthon are the last survivors."

Mara nodded. "I'd say that sums it up nicely."

*****

"I'm amazed that Warren could design something like you," Amy said as she peered inside Buffybot's chest assembly. "It's a shame he was such a piece of shit. There's stuff in here that looks at least fifty years ahead of its time." She levitated a flashlight to look deeper. "What the heck is that?"

"Am I damaged?" Buffybot asked. If Warren was really so smart, and she were badly damaged, who would fix her now that he was dead?

"No," Amy said absently. "There's this crystalline thing deep in your core processor. It looks...like a fractal diamond or something." She reached her hand in.

Buffybot's world exploded. Shimmering mist drifted through fields where lightning bolts sprouted and grew. Heptahedra rotated around axes that were out to lunch eating bananas. The Lidless Eye--not 'a', 'the'--stared curiously at her and she knew his name.

She fell back into herself. "--if I were to pull it out--"

"Don't! Don't touch it! I think it's me!"

Amy pulled back. "Okay," she said, frowning. "But I'm not sure any non-Exalt could have built that. If it's your CPU it's maybe a thousand years ahead of its time."

Buffybot frowned. That didn't make a lot of sense. On the one hand it could explain how _she_ had been made. But then, how had _it_ been made? "Well, Buffy didn't make it...and Faith didn't make it...and Kendra didn't make it. So who made it?"

"Maybe another Slayer made it," Amy said doubtfully. "But my guess would be that it's an ancient artifact from the First or Second Ages."

"And Warren just found it?" It was possible, she thought.

"Lots of ancient mystic artifacts find their way to the hellmouth," Amy pointed out. But that raised another question.

"Am I magic?"

Amy blinked. She didn't seem to have thought of that. "Hell if I know."

*****

"Are you sure I'm the best one to do this, Harm?" Faith glanced between Harmony's face and the spiral video on her laptop. "I mean, I'm not trying to backtrack already, I'm just saying this isn't really my area."

"You decide what your area is," Harmony said, smiling encouragingly. "If we knew when Five Days' Darkness was coming back, I'd totally say wait for him. But we don't, and I want to get in touch with my past lives. I mean...like, am I a necromancer just cause I was a vampire? What was I good at back then, if it wasn't necromancy? Who was I?"

"Harmony," Faith asked, "you really sure it's a good idea to be thinking of them as 'you'? You don't know anything about them, and they weren't even part of you till you Exalted."

Harmony shrugged. "How else am I gonna find out about them?"

"Well...Harmony, you're missing the point!" Faith didn't think Shadow's Grace was a bad person, really, but she wanted to keep the other person separate from herself. And that didn't say a thing about Harmony's past lives.

Harmony gave her a flat look. "I understand what you're saying. I do. But...like, I know we were separate before, but they're part of me now. Like on that show Deep Space Nine?"

"Haven't seen it," Faith muttered. "Just go on. I'll keep an eye on you."

Harmony stared into the spiral. "Thank you. I just...I really wanna know."

A few moments later her eyes closed.

*****

Light Shining in the Nether Regions consulted the band on his wrist. The entropic energies continued to build toward a theoretical maximum, but their shielding held. "Reading a chaotic zone less than a mile ahead," he said. "The Labyrinth breaks down here."

Glimmer of Incandescence nodded, confirming. "I feel it more dir--" The tunnel ended without warning.

"Look," Ferelven the Honest said with a gasp. Shining Light tried not to grumble at him. He had managed to buy his way into this venture, but so far he'd contributed nothing but funding. "The Crowd of Gods," he said, pointing ahead. "Just as I predicted."

Sure enough, beyond the mouth of the tunnel space itself broke down. No matter where he looked, he seemed to be staring _down_ into a shattered reach of silently colliding floating masses. Rock, metal, wood, flesh, goo...all sculpted into vast manses, a final tribute to the dead Primordials sealed in each of them.

"The Abyss," Glimmer said. "The Maw of Oblivion. So it is real." She released the faintest of nervous whimpers, and Shining Light eyed her with disdain. 

_Sorcerers!_ Of course the Abyss was real. Abruptly Shining Light sensed a presence watching him. A fledgling Solar, barely more than human. How had she come here? Wait. Shining Light knew what happened after this. They beguiled the Neverborn into betraying their secrets and went home with the knowledge of necromancy. This was a memory. This was _someone else's_ memory.

He was dead.

*****

Harmony sat bolt upright. Faith jumped up at once, carefully setting down _The Art of War_. Heavy going, but interesting. "You all right? You've been under a while."

Harmony stared at her a moment. "Well. You're a sight for sore eyes. A fellow Solar, girl? The Exaltation found you young, I'd say."

What the hell? "I like to think I'm smoking hot myself, but you've never noticed before, Harm."

Harmony narrowed her eyes and looked down at herself, then did a doubletake. "Bah. Inevitable, I suppose. Could have its perks."

"Harmony, what...?" Faith narrowed her eyes. "I don't know who you are, but you're not Harmony Kendall."

A thin, cruel smile spread across Harmony's face--more cruel than Faith had ever seen on any vampire, even. "I am Light Shining in the Nether Regions, of the Black Nadir Concordat. As for you...I think you will prove a useful--oof!"

The... _thing_ in Harmony's body saw Faith coming, but it wasn't fast enough to stop her. It still seemed limited by her powers, not that Faith trusted that. Suddenly it snarled some harsh words, and the shadow-vomit erupted from Harmony's mouth, seizing Faith by the throat.

"She's hardly even begun developing her essence," Light Shining grumbled as if to himself. "Easier to hold, but it means I have to relearn it all in this body. No matter." Faith wrestled futilely with the shadow creature on the floor. "I have another five thousand years or more. They're all like you, aren't you, little Harmony? I will rule this world in a handful of years and it will become my personal canvas. Goodbye, Shadow's Grace. Yes, I see her in you. A pity. You were something to speak of once."

Faith tried to yell a retort as he walked out the door, but the shadow spilled into her mouth and down her throat. Gagging, she sank to the floor. No air. Even she...needed....

*****

"This is gonna get us all court-martialed," Aiko complained. "Attacking a Secret Service convoy? We'll be lucky to see daylight again."

"Does it matter?" Connie responded. "We swore to serve the country and protect it from supernatural threats, and that woman is the biggest supernatural threat I've ever seen. If she ends up in the White House--"

"We aren't letting that happen," Sam Finn said from the cockpit. "Better a civil war than her, and better if they execute us all. Hey, where--never mind." She knew April and Werner must be crammed into the head together, as per...arrangements, she just hadn't thought about Werner being in there. Everyone'd been sure Werner was a hundred percent straight. Must've only been ninety-nine percent after all. "Anyway, you know how this goes down. We're going to say we're putting in to refuel, then drop off the radar and come down hard on the highway in front of her limo. She'll be in Cleveland or thereabouts. If you can make her show her powers, do it. Let people see. But it's ninety-nine of us to one of her. The strongest Dawn who ever lived would have trouble with those odds, Five says."

Helen Werner and April Peterson emerged from the head, straightening their uniforms, and Zoey and Klein got up and hurried inside. Sam didn't say a word or make any move to stop them. Some things you just couldn't fight, and it was better to let them let off steam than have them explode. At least there hadn't been any more orgies.

"What if she's got a decoy?" Beth asked.

"Then we'll break off and hit again and again till we find the real her," Sam said harshly. "We can't lose this one."

Ninety-eight determined faces in a cargo hold was a lot, and while they were all familiar, they were strange, too. Coal-black faces with hair like curling smoke, sunburnt faces with red hair that shifted as if flickering, dark red smoldering faces, even a few that had gone to stranger colors like the cool blue of a bunsen burner. Sam knew she looked just as different, but she'd gotten used to her own face in the mirror. Now she was surrounded by her own kind, and they might as well have been aliens--or demons-- to her eyes.

Demons. Hmm.

If only Riley were here. But he was busy pretending to be Secret Service, and anyway he just didn't have the...stamina for her. He was only human, after all.

She couldn't start thinking that way. She was human too. If she started thinking of Exalts as nonhuman she'd likely start thinking of them as "not people", too. It was the training.

Demons, though. What was she missing? Something kept nagging at the back of her mind.

"ETA two hours," the pilot called. Damn it. She needed her turn in the head. Where were men when you needed 'em?

*****

Lighter. In her pocket. Five had said fire--

Faith was ablaze inside the burning, screaming shadow. It was screaming with her, it wasn't just her voice. What the hell was it? She rolled, trying desperately to put herself out.

The flames died and left her covered in black grit. Was it dead? Had she--?

Amy came racing into the room, B-bot trailing after her. "Faith! What the hell? Where's Harm?"

"Speed-dial Five Days' Darkness," Faith wheezed through her charred throat. "Harm's in trouble again."

"Must be Tuesday," B-bot said vaguely.

Faith pushed herself to her feet. She wasn't hurt any worse than when she'd fallen out of the sky. "Faith, what happened?" Amy asked.

"Think a past life took her over," Faith said. Why hadn't she thought of this about anyone but herself? "Called himself Light Shining in Nether Regions. I'll burn _his_ nether regions if he hurts her."

"How will you do that?" B-bot asked. "He's in her body." Fair question. Faith hadn't figured that out yet. 

"Him?" Amy wondered.

Faith nodded. "You bet. No woman moves and talks like that. I doubt he's too happy."

The phone rang. "Five? That you?" Amy put him on speaker. "Tried to get you a second ago. Harm's acting weird. We think she's having problems with a past life?"

Five groaned. "I was afraid this might happen. Maybe it's a young one. Has she used a name?"

"Light Shining in Nether Regions," Faith said. "And he belonged--"

"To the Black Nadir Concordat," Five said flatly. "Shit. Shit, shit, shit! This is bad."

"We'll get her back before she makes any trouble," B-bot said. " We can fix it together."

"No," Five's response came. "You don't get it. The Concordat were ancient Solars, none less than two thousand years old when they breached the Neverborn's tombs. Light Shining didn't die till sometime around the Usurpation. An average Solar would struggle with his memories. Harm...I'm sorry. You're going to have to accept that she's gone."

"What the hell?" Faith growled. "He's just a memory--"

"He's millennia worth of memories from one of the most malicious, devious, and clever minds of the First Age. Harmony doesn't stand a chance. I'm calling in a favor, Faith. Kill her while you can. It'll be a mercy."

*****

"We're closing," the pilot said. "Go get ready."

"All right," she told him. He had no powers to take part in this with them, but he would face court-martial at their side. "Thank you."

"Just doing my job," he said with a nod.

"All the same," she said, and exited the cockpit. "All right soldiers! Open the hatch and watch that first step, it's a doozy!"

The hatch slid open. "Anyone whose chute isn't ready better make it ready!" Below them and a bit behind, black limousines were rolling by. "There goes our target. We can fall behind and if you've been doing your exercises it won't matter. First wave...now!"

Soldiers spilled from the plane. No way was Lilah getting out of this one.

*****

"That's my body!"

Light Shining rolled his eyes. "Child, you are not so much an Exalt as an accident. Your body is better off with me in control of it, honestly."

The child pretender couldn't even shunt his perceptions into a memoryscape. It seemed to be all she could do to make an image of herself to distract him with.

"Excuse you. It's my body and I don't care what--"

Light Shining closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. By the Incarna, she was annoying! Then he focused his thoughts into a single blow to her sternum.

The pretended Solar gave a little gasp, and the core of her self-image unraveled, scattering on the winds of thought. He caught a few fragments--her domineering father, an attempt to embarrass classmates, a demon's teeth in her throat--and then she was gone. More dead than dead. Rather a shame. If only he could have melted her ghost into soulsteel and made her useful.

Shining Light walked away into the new, strange city. He was alive again and the world was his alone.

*****

The convoy erupted in fire. Al Gore never knew what hit him.


	28. Living Dead Girl

These people were fools.

These people were utter fools.

Light Shining In Nether Regions could sense uncontrolled motic flare-ups here and there--in the power grid, in the feeble displays of a handful of weak sorcerors, in the powers of various spirits--but nowhere was there any serious attempt at the regulation of essential force. Geomancy was evidently nonexistent, even in the heart of a major city.

What passed for astrology was a trivia page in the backs of obsolete newspapers about events in the lives of mortal leaders who should have been nonentities.

Demons and elementals and gods and even raksha flitted about just beneath the notice of stupid mortals, and the few who so much as noticed couldn't tell one from the--

What was that infernal sticky dampness in his undergarments?

_plug it up plug it up_

_\--if I'm so stupid how come you don't know thing one about women, Jesse--_

_plug it up_

Had the damnable little bint not found a way around _that_ yet? Light Shining rummaged through her handbag. Ah, yes...a sac of "pads". Now where to apply them?

_the ladies' room dumbass_

_Yes but where do I find--?_ No. Do not acknowledge it. Let it disintegrate under the weight of his inattention. Where did he find a "ladies' room"?

Light Shining scanned the various stores and entered one at random. It seemed to be a grocers'. "Tell me where the 'ladies' room' is," he ordered a mortal in quasi-uniform.

"That's not open to the public here," "Debra" said. "You can try next--"

"Admit me to the 'ladies' room'," he said more forcefully.

The mortal Debra gave him an annoyed look but led him into an office. "Here. I hope you realize I'm not--"

"Be silent," he ordered, and the mortal was silent. He entered the toilet facility.

These people were _utter, absolute fools_!

**Chapter 54--Living Dead Girl**

"For a time," Five Days' Darkness said, "Light Shining may have to force his way through this world on sheer power. He will understand the functions--though not the inner workings, probably--of its technology, but not the culture, any more than you would understand the culture of Mad Max's timeframe. But he is infinitely subtle and even Harmony's limited powers will give him a distinct advantage over mortals."

"And he can just..." Faith snapped her fingers. "...take over just like that, and Harmony is gone?" She'd gone pale. Of course, that appalling fate was just as applicable to her, from what she knew. Perhaps to any of them.

Time to soften the blow. "In my experience, past life takeovers are uncommon and limited in duration. But Light Shining is especially bright and powerful and Harmony especially dull and weak. He will work to break her mind to the point that she cannot meaningfully resume control. Even if he somehow fails to do so in the hours he has available, he will simply maneuver her into a situation she cannot manage without his help and he will immediately seize her again. She is a kitten against a dire wolf in this situation." He might even be telling the truth, though he had never actually heard of an incident of that nature. It wasn't as if he knew much about the Abyssals who had been in similar predicaments.

Faith narrowed her eyes. "But she's not actually dead yet."

"She probably is. She certainly will be before we can catch up to him. You are failing to understand the magnitude of the difference between them."

Now it was Amy's turn to grow suspicious. "My mother had power like you wouldn't believe but she didn't risk just mind-controlling me."

"Your mother was no doubt powerful for a mortal sorceress, Amy, perhaps even a god-blood of some sort, but she was never an Exalt." More stable footing now. "You are comparing a pony to a Shire horse and forgetting the great diesel tractor that overshadows both."

"Either way," Buffybot said pragmatically, "we have to catch up to them, right? We'll figure out how to save Harmony when we do."

That was a useful but potentially dangerous line of thought. Kate spoke up before he could open his mouth. "You know, last time Five said she was already dead Harm saved herself before we caught up. Not that we shouldn't go--a necromancer could make a lot of trouble first--but I'm starting to think he just underestimates people."

Five shrugged. "Think what you like, but go." This had the dangerous potential to get out of hand--but then, so did Lilah Morgan.

*****

Samantha Finn dropped like a stone.

Only for a few moments, though. She felt her wrists gripped from above and yanked upward before she was sent dizzily careening up and back. This was their descent, which so far was not going quite as well as planned. She could see energy flares streaking and spotting the sky, and she doubted it could be mistaken for a storm even from the ground.

They hadn't been able to procure enough parachutes in time, and none of them were yet able to fly, so they were descending in a dazzling display of aerobatics, jolting and jumping off one another as the company fell in slowed-down motion. The lowest members were pivoting off the trees below already.

"Be ready for anything!" she hollered into her headset as her second-in-command, Marie, caught her by the ankles and flipped her down through the branches. "We don't know her capabilities in any detail!" she added as she grabbed a thick limb and pivoted. Finally her feet struck the ground with a bone-jarring, but not -breaking, thump, and she rolled, finishing, "She's more likely to apply misdirection than force, but be on your guard for both!"

Sam stood and began helping catch the remaining members of the unit. With everyone on the ground at last, Marie reported, "Convoy headed toward us from behind. Get to intercept positions!"

Sam wondered about Marie as the company dashed toward the road. Her once-mahogany complexion had turned ash-grey on Exaltation, and her fire was a pale green. It didn't seem to be any kind of sickness, but it was an unhealthy-looking anomaly. Marie was from New Orleans, which Sam knew was a hot spot for undead activity, but if she had any affinity for such things herself it hadn't shown. There were two others in the unit like her. What did it mean?

Then they reached the road moments ahead of the security convoy and there was no more time to worry about it. Three of her soldiers dashed across the road, creating a boundary of flickering flame in their wake. Another ten took up positions on the road, rifles at the ready.

Sam flipped a switch on her headset. "Get out of the cars!" She shouted, voice amplified. "U.S. military authority!" She had no real authority here, but they couldn't be sure of that. "We've got a national security situation!"

Men in black suits began climbing from the vehicles. They frowned at her and promptly vamped out. Damn it! Had Lilah turned so many? And why, against a group of Fire Aspects? "Open fire!" one of them shouted, and speed-drew a semi-automatic weapon.

"Fire at will," Sam responded, and both gunfire and actual fire began to fly. The vampires went down quickly under such a withering, inimical assault.

Without warning, one of the middle cars went _whump!_ as they approached and exploded into a ball of fire. "Who hit the car?" Sam yelled. That was Lilah's car! She wanted the woman dead, but she needed confirmation.

No one answered, save for a few grunts of confusion. Sam flared her aura and charged forward into the flames. Lilah was plainly visible in the back seat, flailing helplessly in the fire; apparently she had no powers that could save her from this. She was likely as good as dead already, and Sam wasn't here to save her.

She only needed to know.

*****

"Anyway," Lilah said, "it was a simple plan once I worked out how to disguise other people as myself. Inner--what did you call it?--Inner Devils Unleashed was just frosting on the cake, to make sure there were no survivors to warn them."

"Ingenious," D'Hoffryn acknowledged. "But Dragon-Blooded trying to kill you seem counter-productive."

Lilah nodded. "Don't worry so much. I intend to stay on the top half of this ticket. I've worked out how to put an end to this sort of thing."

"How?" Mara asked warily.

"Sex," Lilah said, smiling wryly. "From what you've told me, the Dragon-Blooded will screw just about anything, especially these first-generation types, but what they really want is to _breed_. The appearance of a Dragon-Blooded man should be well-nigh irresistable, and I believe I've worked out the kinks in releasing specific Exaltations. By what you said, there ought to be only one, so I don't have to worry about a flood of new Exalted coming for me."

"And if the Exaltation heads for Sydney or Mumbai?" Mara asked. 

"You've indicated these aren't as picky as the others," Lilah argued. "They'll take anyone of reasonably good health who's of reproductive age. Past heroism is a plus, but not a requirement."

D'Hoffryn shrugged. "Essentially."

"Well, then," Lilah said, tapping the enthralled black-suited man beside her on the shoulder. "This corn-fed Iowa boy should be just about perfect."

*****

At last, a glimmering of something approaching sanity. The Los Angeles city hall was perhaps not geomantically ideal, but it had clearly been built with some limited knowledge of geomancy. It was a blocky tower symbolizing the monolith of government, with a signpost indicating its connection to other cities. It was a place to start.

Light Shining walked inside and strolled up to the attractive woman at the front desk. "I would like to speak to the Mayor," he said.

"Do you have an appointment?" the functionary asked. Of course. Even a proper Exalted official would be busy; a mere mortal would be frantically scurrying about.

"We're old friends," Light Shining said amicably. "I don't need an appointment as long as he's in. If he's not, could you tell me where he is?" He leaned over the desk in a manner he hoped she would find attractive, remembering his current body too late when its breasts brushed the raised near edge of the furniture.

The functionary stared at him in consternation for a few long moments, but finally responded, "He's in his office. I'll buzz you in," and pressed a button.

For a moment it occurred to Light Shining that she might have overcome his charisma and be summoning security to escort him out, especially when she muttered something uncomplimentary about his sexual behavior, followed by "Damn interest groups," but the door ahead opened and she waved him inside. If he'd had his full powers on hand he'd have done something unpleasant to her, but needs must.

Light Shining breezed through a few more checkpoints, including one where he was startled to realize a male security guard was all but drooling over him. Finally he reached the Mayor's office, which was predictably stacked with disorganised boxes of papers and personal effects. "Excuse me," the Mayor said, "but I'm afraid I'm rather busy prepping to move out. Can I help you?"

"Moving out?" _\--term limits you loser--_ "What if I said you could stay in power?" That must be what was happening. His superior had removed him from office. Probably he was incompetent, which only helped Light Shining. "I can advise you how to accomplish that."

The Mayor hesitated for just a second, then waved a hand dismissively. "I wouldn't think of violating the law," he chuckled.

Inwardly, Light Shining fumed. "Could you get me an audience with your successor?"

"Um," the Mayor said idiotically, and pressed a button. "Probably. Ah...Donna...can you set this lady up with an appointment after the election? Miss...?"

"Light Shining in the Nether Regions," he responded.

The Mayor blinked and frowned. "Is that your PAC? All right, put that down, Donna."

"Two months from now good?" asked a voice over a communications system.

"Two months? Can nothing be done sooner?" What mad bureaucratic nonsense was this?

"You'll have to wait till after the inauguration, Miss. We don't even know for sure who it'll be yet."

Light's fury bubbled to the surface and he raised his hand to begin an incantation.

"Say," the Mayor said, "aren't you that...ah...superhero? Gizmo Girl or something like that?"

A middle-aged mortal woman with slightly darkened skin poked her head into the office. "Looks like her, doesn't it? I don't think she's given a name for herself yet. Kinda stayed in the background. Said she's a genius or something. NBC called her Gizmo Girl, I think. Are you her?"

Light Shining snarled and spat out the only spell he could remember so far. A torrent of living darkness poured from his mouth and engulfed the fool of a Mayor.

"C'mon, Gizmo Girl," said a voice from behind him. "A, you're overusing that thing, and B, you're ruining your public image here."

"Shadow's Grace," Light Shining grumbled. "Will you never cease bedeviling me?"

*****

"Go on," the thing in Harm's body said. "Attack me, Shadow's Grace. Kill your pathetic little friend. She can't defend herself from you. Trust me; I know. What use she is to you is beyond me. You, on the other hand, can kill us in a heartbeat."

B-bot seized one of the mayor's arms; an electrical discharge surged through him and dissipated the shadow.

"Arrest these women," Light Shining told the mayor, who blinked weakly in confusion.

"Y-yes," the mayor stammered. "You people are vigilantes--you included, young lady! You're under citizen's arrest. Donna, call the police and lock down this office!" He seemed a little dazed.

Amy made a forceful upward gesture, and Harmony surged away from the ground. She only began to laugh. "The police will no doubt kill you all," she snickered, "once I've spoken to them." Faith glanced at Amy; she at least was still considered a fugitive.

"Kate won't let them do that," Amy said confidently. Faith wasn't so sure. Yes, Kate had connections; yes, she was an Exalt. But--

*****

"Lockley. Or should I call you 'Mama Bear'? You know, you were hot stuff once."

"Yeah, yeah, Bates, and then I got caught up in weird occult stuff, I know." Kate paused. "Has it occurred to you: I can turn into a bear?"

Bates didn't lower his revolver. "Valid point. Doesn't authorize vigilante justice."

"You're right," Kate called back. "Nothing does. Sometimes it's necessary anyway."

"That's a load of--" A bottle struck the back of Bates' head, and about three dozen walking dead men strode into view.

"Sorry I'm late," Shoat shouted. "Had to get new minions."

"Minions, huh?" Kate laughed in spite of herself as the police began shooting at the zombies. "Know where I can get some minions?"

"Try the zoo?" That might work.

Kate genuinely didn't want power. But as Lilah galloped toward the White House, she was starting to wonder if she might soon be the lesser of evils.

*****

Faith took a step toward Amy as gunfire erupted outside, and almost didn't notice as Harmony took a swing at her. She didn't bother ducking; Harm couldn't--

Harm's punch dislocated Faith's jaw, and she staggered against Amy, who dropped Harmony to the floor. "I've never taken much interest in common fisticuffs," the necromancer said, "but your friend has an astonishing affinity for it."

Faith popped her jaw back into place. It was easy to forget that Harm'd been no couch potato as a student; cheerleaders might not be bodybuilders, but they didn't exactly neglect strength. This was beyond that, though; it must've been something the necromancer had managed to figure out slash teach Harmony.

"She works out," B-bot said, agreeing with Faith's thoughts. "Gymnastics are good exercise. Harmony is an athlete."

"Bah," the necromancer spouted. "Harmony is a useless piece of fluff who should never have come closer to being a Solar than sharing the bed of one."

And then, without any warning, he froze in mid-stride.

*****

Light Shining was sitting in a small chair with a writing desk, surrounded by children at other desks. He looked down at himself. He was also a child, in his late teens perhaps.

"I've figured something out," said the girl beside him. "Well...several things. One...you're stupid." Light Shining tried to get out of the desk and go after her, but found himself trapped. "You're going to call me a name. Insect. Slug. Mouse. Whatever. You've forgotten something."

Harmony rose from the desk and stood over him. "Sure," she said. "I'm a mouse. So are you. Humans are all mice. The only difference is that we're mice who can roar."

Light Shining wrenched at the scene. They were at the mouth of the Abyss. Harmony stood there too, taking the place of the Honest One. "The Primordials thought we were all nothing," she said. "They paid for it, too." She turned and smacked the tomb wall. "See, what I've figured out...."

They were. back in the classroom. "I envy you," Harmony said. "You're smart. You have a future. Only...you envy me too. I'm pretty. I'm popular. You've got a future, but I've got the present. Girls think you're ugly. Guys think you're a dweeb. You, like, wanna prove them wrong. And you did. And all by itself, there's nothing wrong with that. It's okay. People've got all kinds of reasons for doing big important things."

She pulled him up by the scruff of his neck. This was intolerable! "But you didn't grow up, Light Shining. You're still totally a scared little boy. You're afraid someone's going to come along and see what a fake you are. You still envy me...and...and I feel sorry for you."

Harmony looked him in the eyes. "I understand you. I got the good parts of being you. I got to keep the good parts of being me, too. I'm pretty. I'm athletic. I get people. I'm sorry you never had those things. But it's too late. You're, like, not even a ghost." She glanced over her shoulder at the Honest One. "You were...contemptuous of him. And jealous, too. That's why you said I was nothing. You thought he was nothing too, but no way would you have gotten necromancy without him."

"Being a Twilight was a fluke," Harmony acknowledged. "Being Exalted wasn't. I wasn't smart, but how many Dawns are smart? I was popular, I understood people, I might even have been able to lead if I'd been just a smidge smarter, not much. And now I am."

The girl sat him down gently in his seat. "I don't envy you any more. I didn't even realize it was happening. I set out to make myself an independent woman. To be better. Maybe if I hadn't Exalted I wouldn't have gotten far--like, maybe I'd be a secretary at some law firm. But that's better than living in a crypt or...or a...girl cave eating stale popcorn and wearing my high school letter jacket. I let go of envying you and started making myself better at _something_. And now...I don't envy you at all any more. It just kinda...withered and dropped off." Her caste mark flared, suddenly, not bright but black and forboding; she didn't seem to notice. "But hey...at least you get to be me now. And you know, that's pretty cool for a loser like you."

*****

Harmony looked around. "Hey, Mr. Mayor! Um...I'm totes sorry. I promise I didn't want to hurt you. And it wasn't exactly me, but I'll pay reparations if you want."

The mayor stared at her. "Just...just go," he breathed. "I've had enough trouble for one day. I'll call off the police."

Harmony grinned at him. That was really nice of him to agree to that. "If you wanna," she said.

*****

Five Days' Darkness was in Kate's office when they all got back. He sat there holding his head. "You set us up to kill her," Kate accused. "She beat him without lifting a finger."

"I don't think you realize," Five groaned. "I used to believe those...gothic imbeciles in their skulls and black leather were frightening for knowing necromancy. I never realized how terrifying a feckless woman-child could be. I saw it in her when she arrived just now. That girl has initiated herself in less than a month as far as the Onyx Circle. What if having been a vampire and being the reincarnation of one of the Black Nadir Concordat are the boost she needs to be the first Solar to reach the Void Circle? There's always a first time with Solars, you know. Always."

"What if?" Kate repeated. "If...then we trust her."

"Trust that...cheerleader to wield the entropic forces of the monsters eating reality?" Five stared at her. "Kate, don't be naive."

"Maybe," Kate said, "it's really never occurred to you that a powerful necromancer might be _exactly_ what you need to deal with horrifying titanic ghosts." It hadn't occurred to her, either, till she said it.

Five stared at her some more. Maybe her hair was on fire? "I don't think it works that way."

"Maybe not," Kate admitted. "We're _all_ playing with fire here just being Exalted. You trust me. You trust Faith. Trust Harm. She's a grownup. Before long she's going to be smarter than either of us." She shook her head. "Damn, that's a weird thought."

"You've got minions?" Harm squeed in the background. "Shoat, that's awesome! I want minions!"

Five Days' Darkness buried his face in his hands. After a moment, Kate sighed, took her own advice, and went out to congratulate Harmony.


	29. Miss Lehane Goes To Washington

Riley Finn's head felt full of cotton, his back ached, and he needed to pee. He opened his eyes. This was not how he enjoyed waking up. Wherever he was, it was still pitch black, he had something squishy on him, and he smelled freshly-turned soil.

Uh-oh. In his experience the two most likely reasons for that were that a) he had been turned and b) he had been buried alive, and neither was appealing. He attempted to resolve the issue by getting up, but his arms moved half an inch and stopped short as if he were tied up.

"Hold still," Oz's voice said. "You were thrashing in your sleep." Riley felt hands unstrapping his wrists. "We think Lilah caught you. Get ready. You look...different."

Riley sat up, nearly injuring himself in the process. Must've been away from Sam too long; he had the worst case of morning wood ever. "Different how?"

For answer, Oz turned on the lights. Riley looked down at himself. For the briefest moment he thought he must've been bodyjacked, then that he'd been abandoned in a tanning booth. His skin was the rich brown of good Iowa soil. He lifted one hand and sniffed it; the loamy scent was his. He'd been well-defined before; now he had a sixpack, and everything about him that hadn't been toned was now. The mirror on the wall showed that his face was essentially unchanged except in color, though his hair now looked a little like grass sprouting from his scalp. Also...he needed some new boxers.

"Sorry," Oz said. "We figured it was Sam's place to change those if you couldn't, and she's not back yet." At least it explained why he didn't also have the world's worst case of blue balls. "Every couple of hours...." Oz shrugged. "Good dreams?"

Riley rubbed his temples. "I don't actually remember the last couple of--" Something in his head _clicked_. "Scratch that. Lilah spotted me as a spy right away and..." He narrowed his eyes. "...sent me back to keep Sam's people occupied."

Oz hesitated for a second, then nodded. "Right. They're still on their way back. Should be another hour or two." He looked down. "They were sure they got Lilah, but the news says she's alive and Al Gore isn't."

"Damn it," Riley muttered. "She played Sam and she played me too."

"Polls are saying she's going to sweep the country," Oz said flatly. "I'm not sure what else we can do. The others are talking in the main room."

Riley took a moment to get dressed. Hopefully he wasn't going to have any more...reactions while he was awake. He was remembering some of those dreams now.

**Chapter 55--Miss Lehane Goes To Washington**

Buffy! No, of course it wasn't. It was the robot who looked like her. Of course, that made the robot very hot in her own right. There were a lot of things he was conservative about, but either the robot wasn't really sentient and didn't have any rights to violate or she was a real person and it wasn't any more wrong to make love to her than anyone else. And she'd been built as a sexbot, anyway! No...he was a married man.

Of all the women in the room who shouldn't have turned him on, Faith headed the list. He might not have actually felt violated--he hadn't known for almost a week!--but legally speaking she had raped him. He accepted that she was reformed and was willing to work with her, but she shouldn't have made him hot under the collar unless it was with anger. Tough luck there.

He barely knew Amy. She'd been a rat by the time he came to Sunnydale. She was into powers he didn't understand, and that made him nervous. She was with Faith. Damn, she was hot. And he was married.

Harmony hadn't been smart enough to be of any interest till she Exalted, and now she was downright creepy. She had the most wonderful tits, though--stop it! Stop!

Kate was older than him, so it wasn't really appropriate--he was reaching and it wasn't even working. Each woman in the room made him want to explode all by herself. At least Shoat wasn't giving him problems--but if he started staring at her he'd _really_ worry everyone. Riley focused on Robin and Oz and hoped he didn't have any latent tendencies he hadn't noticed.

"Well," Harmony said appreciatively, "you've changed." Was she really trying to sound seductive or was that his hornones talking?

He focused hard, looked away from her chest _again_ , and said, "Lilah made me a Terrestrial, and for once her motives make sense. She wants the Dragon-Blooded we already have too busy, ah...having sex to attack again."

"There's only one of you and ninety-nine of them," the Buffy robot said, puzzled.

Riley just nodded. "Uuuh-huh." He wasn't going to do it, of course. He was a married man and he wasn't going to cheat on his wife and that was that.

"Apparently Terrestrials are notoriously superhumanly horny," Amy said with a small smirk. "You've seen how Sam acts," she added, winking at the robot.

"But there are _ninety-nine_ of them," the robot insisted as if still not seeing the point.

"I think the word is 'orgy'," Robin tried. "They won't object to more Dragon-Blooded men, but he can keep several busy at once while the rest...play."

"Also," Kate said, "presuming we can trust Five Days' Darkness' word, the whole biological point is to get as many of the women pregnant as fast as possible. It'll ease off after that...some, anyway."

"What'll ease off?" said the sexiest voice Riley had ever heard, and Samantha Finn walked through the door. She might as well have been naked, even though he knew the uniform wasn't as form-fitting as his mind's eye insisted. She was flushed even brighter red than usual and seemed to be avoiding his eyes. Then their gazes locked in spite of her efforts, and he heard her gasp from across the room--or was that just him? "Riley," she said breathlessly, "you, ah home early...you...um...." She glided across the floor and into his arms and thank you God she was pressed against him and--

"Sir?" asked Lieutenant Marie Santangelo, her strangely ashen face peering through the open door. "You said we needed to f-f-find r-rooms holy mary is that your husband?"

The room was suddenly very full of women.

*****

"Whuph!" It wasn't often that Faith got knocked on her ass, or thrown out a door. "What just happened?"

"We just saw why the Usurpation was possible," Robin joked. "I count five Celestial Exalts outside and one hundred Terrestrials inside, and they stomped your butts. Though I doubt the Usurpation was caused by horny Dragon-Blooded women."

"Don't count out horny women," Harmony giggled. "I wouldn't have minded getting my hands on him, even if he does kinda look like he's in blackface."

Robin sighed and said, "I'm gonna presume that race and geographic origin are both factors. Fire's pretty much the same wherever you go, but where Riley's from the main type of earth is farming soil."

Kate also sighed. "I hate to say it, but it looks like Lilah's getting her way on this one. I guess I'd better get off the security cams and not be a peeping tom, but I think Sam's managed to pull rank and lock herself in a room with him, only they're camping on the other side and stripping, and I doubt they'll wait long."

"Meaning that they're probably not going to help us much till election week's long over," Amy concluded glumly.

"Then we have to do something on our own," Shoat said. "We can't just roll over for her."

Faith had already concluded that. But she had to do it in a way Lilah wouldn't see coming. She'd thought recruiting an army was necessary, but if it telegraphed her every move....

Maybe she'd been doing the wrong thing this whole time. She vanished into the growing shadows.

*****

"I love you," Riley said after the third time. He'd said it over and over, and it made Sam smile every time he did. It also made her cringe inside. She was going to have to tell him.

"I love you too," she said, watching as he prepared to go again. She was already aching for more herself. "Ri...I love you and I'm glad to get the chance to be close to you again. And you feel wonderful. But we have problems."

He looked at her like a lost puppy. "Huh?"

"First...I'm nowhere near done, but Riley...I'm bored. I love you and we're a good physical match but you need to learn some new techniques. Experiment a little already, honey."

"You, uh...you want me to use my mouth?" He was so earnest.

"That's a start. But second...I've got ninety-eight desperate soldiers out there and with the possible exception of a few lesbians you are exactly what they need. I hate it, Ri." She had to finish this discussion while she could still think straight. "I don't want us to split up. But at least for the time being...I'm willing to share. Do you understand?"

Riley recoiled. "Honey...Sam...I love _you_. I don't..."

The third blow would be the hardest, but maybe it would make him see what had to be done. "Ri, you don't have to worry about cheating on me. I cheated on you on the way home."

This time it was as if she'd slapped him. "What? With...who was it?"

"April Petersen. She...she's worked out a way of hitting on straight women. Probably gay guys, too, not that she'd care. And it works. She's taught some others. I don't mean mind control or anything. She's resistable. But after a week of nothing but my hand, and months of having to...ah...supplement...she was what I needed. If I'd known I'd find you like this when I got home, maybe I'd have waited. I'm sorry." She didn't actually feel guilty, but she hung her head anyway, playing submissive.

There was a moment...a brief look on his face...anger, betrayal...and then: "I forgive you, Sam."

She nodded. "Then I hope you'll forgive this as well." She opened the door. "All right soldiers! The commander's had her privileges. Gather up in groups of...of four. Santangelo, Petersen, Fisk, Cole, in here with me!" They snapped to attention, naked and too aroused to care, and hustled into the room. Sam locked the door again while Ri stood as if she'd poleaxed him. "Petersen, see if you can teach that thing you do to Finn. You'll feel better about it after."

It wasn't as if they were going to have to force him. Rather, he'd get to stop forcing himself.

It was for the best. It was.

*****

A sudden gust of wind rippled across Los Angeles. People here and there glanced up from their late night business. No one noticed any causs for the disturbance, so they put it down to the weather.

No one looked up.

At LAX the breeze reached its destination, and a girl appeared beneath a plane's wing, halfway up its landing gear. This plane was leaving on a flight to Washington, D.C.

The girl crawled up into the wheel well. It'd take forever getting there under her own power, and anyway, why risk getting lost?

*****

"You don't show it much," Robin murmured to Harmony, "but on a raw power level you're growing fast, aren't you?"

Harmony blinked; she'd been distracted by the knowledge of the store-wrecking orgy going on inside. "I, ah...think so. But how--?" Her eyes narrowed. "Five was talking about you, wasn't he?"

Robin shrugged and glanced at the door. "What did he say? That I should've inherited some kind of powers from my mom? I didn't."

"You should have," Harmony mused. "Nikki Wood shouldn't have been less powerful than Buffy, not at her age. You should be half-caste. And you're right, when I beat Black Nadir Guy I...fulfilled something inside and it cranked me up a notch. I don't have much else to show for it, but it's there. So how'd you know?"

"What're you implying?" Robin scoffed.

"How long've you been fighting demons?" Harm wondered.

"A few years," he said with a shrug. "Went through a whole 'avenging son' phase back in my twenties, but I never caught up to the one who got my mother and it burned out eventually."

"That was a while. Show me your scars. I bet you've got some totally cool scars." She reached for his arm.

He pulled back. "Not really. I mean...I got stabbed in the gut this one time. Little bit of a scar there. Mostly I don't get hit." He pulled his shirt up to reveal a tiny triangular scar. "Safer that way."

"That's not a lot of scars, to have been fighting demons ten years. And gut wounds are totally serious business."

"I know that!" he finally growled. "What're you trying to imply?"

"Oh, just that if the Slayer line can go for millennia and not notice they've got more than super strength and speed, one guy can go for ten years or so and not notice he's got any powers at all. Right?" Robin nodded grudgingly. "You've lasted ten years with barely a scar and survived a gut wound, _and_ you knew I'd gotten more powerful. Five says an Infernal half-caste should be able to do a lot of what a Slayer can, just not at the same level of raw power."

"You're suggesting I'm some kind of cut-rate Slayer?" Robin shook his head.

"I'm saying we may have to fight some kind of guerilla war against President Lilah Morgan, and we can't afford not to train you in whatever you can do."

"All right," Robin said after a few moments. "Can't hurt."

*****

Faith came around suddenly. Plane was touching down. Lilah was heading here on the last wing of her trip to address the nation as a whole. No last moment side trips; she was that confident. She had reason to be.

Faith slipped down the landing gear. The news would tell her where to go. Somewhere soon Lilah would stop at a hotel or something of that nature. And Faith would be waiting for her.

*****

"She's waiting for you," D'Hoffryn said. "She wants to get back at you for a great many things."

"Well," Lilah chuckled, "I should change hotels." Deep in her head Darla concurred.

"No," Mara said. "As important as it is to let you go your own way, no Exalt can completely hide from combat. I've trained you for this. It's time to pull out the stops."

"Are you serious?" Lilah frowned at her. "I'm a Fiend, right? I travel and I play the politics game."

"There comes a time," Mara said, "when every Malefactor must stand under the whip and knife, every Defiler must break out the rayguns...and every Fiend must carry stiletto and garotte. Fight her your own way, Lilah. Summon demon allies, control her mind, or just stab her in the back. But fight."

"You want to know how I handle a combat situation? I avoid it." Early on, thinking she was a Slayer, she'd gone out looking for a fight, but her powers didn't work like that. It wasn't safe.

"Not even Elloge or the Ebon Dragon could avoid every fight, Lilah," D'Hoffryn explained with a shake of his head. "You won't either. Don't try to hide from this."

*****

Drusilla stood over the box of souls. So many had escaped now, yet the box still throbbed with power. Knox had found it and she had led Darla to its resting place. She craved it. It frightened her. The things inside she could never touch, and that frightened her most of all.

Kimbery had made it, and now the Yozi was dead and notdead. Just like Drusilla. Nothing like Drusilla.

Prophecy itself was torn now. How could she trust what she saw? Only a fool would believe it, now, so close to the end of all things. Why was her destiny tied to these greatest of weapons when even they were doomed to fail?

"Little one," Heinrich said. Not Heinrich. His name was gone. "Come away. It has nothing to do with you, Drusilla." Was it him? Or just the voices in her head?

She laid her fingers on the laser device Grandmum had made, the key of the lock. How did it open again? Could she even know?

Drusilla raked her fingers over the controls and turned away.

*****

Faith slipped through the Hilton like a ghost. Lilah must know she was here, must have drawn her here. There had been too much publicity about where she was staying. Unless it was someone else wearing her face again.

If it was, Faith would keep hunting till she found her.

Faith pried open the elevator hatch. Lilah was somewhere above, probably in the penthouse suite. Security was concentrated on the top floors. She began to shimmy up the cables; flying would burn energy and risk attracting attention.

No one else was climbing up or down the shaft, of course. She reached the doors unopposed and pried them open a crack. Two agents stood just beyond the door. Before they could react to her presence, she smacked their heads together, dropping them both. But someone would notice soon.

Faith slipped around the corner. She was in a wide coatroom, not a hallway. Lilah's coat hung there, along with a pair of black jackets. So there were more agents in here somewhere. She had to be prepared to kill them, regardless of what she wanted. So why was there no sign of them?

She ghosted through the rooms. No one in the main room. Kitchen was empty. Bathroom seemed entirely unused. A door from the small kitchen led out onto the roof, where there was a pool and hot tub. Faith checked the second closet first. Still empty. Where--?

Someone sat up in the hot tub. Faith opened the door as quietly as possible. No reaction from the tub. Something must be wrong, surely, but if Lilah really just hadn't noticed and Faith left now she might not get another chance.

She dashed across the remaining distance, raising a stake. Simple, but just as deadly to humans as vampires. At the last moment, the figure stood, and the stake pierced Lilah Morgan's heart. There was a rushing of wind, and Lilah began to crumble to dust starting from the point of impact. Faith was startled enough to let her hand keep moving forward, straight through Lilah's disintegrating body.

The effect halted, only inches away from Faith's wrist. "Nice try," Lilah said, "but did you really believe it would be that easy?" She took two steps backward through the water, and the swirling dust coalesced back into her uninjured chest.

"Nope," Faith said, bringing her hand up. She jammed an agent's pistol into Lilah's right eye and fired.

*****

Harmony checked her cell phone for the thirtieth time. "You think I can sneak in?" she asked. "Maybe they're asleep."

Kate looked at the window and blinked slowly. "Nope," she said, blinking again. "And I'm not going in there."

"Can you check my e-mail with that? I've got an order on Amazon." Harmony squinted as if she could see through the windowshades somehow. Probably there was a way.

Kate frowned. "I hadn't thought of that. Maybe." Then she shook her head. "Sorry, too alien. I can see through security cameras and hear through the radio, but I can't read electronic impulses. Yet, at least."

"I'll go in," Shoat said.

"No!" Harmony, Amy, and Oz all said at once.

"They won't do anything to me," Shoat said. "They'll probably even stop while I'm there. And on the off chance anyone is that far gone, I can defend myself, guys."

"Against a hundred Terrestrials?" Kate sounded afraid of the idea. "We talked about that with Five Days' Darkness, Shoat."

"They won't _all--_ "

"No!" everyone said again.

Harmony sighed and began fiddling with her phone. "Maybe I can hack into it somehow with this thing. It's all wireless, right?"

"That's only in the movies, Harm," Oz said. "You can't really hack into a computer with--"

"Yay! I'm in!" Harmony scrolled up and down on the tiny screen. "Can't see it very well. My order is where? San Diego?" She frowned. "Anybody know a herodsgirl@yahoo.com?" No one answered. "She's sent me this. It just says 'Miss Edith formally requests your presence for a tea party in the Wolfram & Hart Tower.' Doesn't Droodzilla like to talk about a Miss Edith?"

"Drusilla with an e-mail account?" Lorne chuckled. "Sweetheart, I'm not sure she even understands the concept of _mail_ mail."

"She has a cell phone," Kate dissented. "I don't know where she learned to use it, but she has one."

"Drusilla is crazy like a fox," Oz said. "Also like a loon, but...hey, anyone know where Faith went?"

*****

Faith squeezed the trigger, and the bullet went straight through Lilah's eye and skull.

Lilah's head coalesced from the dust again within moments. "A bullet in the head didn't kill you, Faith. What made you think it'd kill me?"

Faith shrugged and tossed the gun aside. "Something will. I just hafta figure out what." She grabbed Lilah by the waist and slammed her out of the hot tub and into the roof.

Lilah didn't dematerialize this time--indeed, she might be a little bruised--but she stood up without difficulty. "You know what your problem is, Faith? You've been Exalted too long. Yes, I know what we are." Faith swung at her, but she danced aside. "Don't worry about my guardians. Ive ordered them quite strictly to stay out of this. They won't interfere."

"Hold still, damnit!" It wasn't a rational thing to ask. Faith wasn't feeling very rational. Lilah complied anyway, but Faith's roundhouse kick passed through her in a spray of dust.

"You've forgotten how women fight,Faith, if you ever knew. Called at fifteen, right?" Lilah raised her hands. "We use our nails, go for the eyes." She slashed at Faith's one good eye, forcing her to recoil, catching her face anyway in a small spray of blood. "We hit below the belt." Her knee slammed into Faith's crotch before she could dodge, and pain exploded through her belly. "I'm a dirty fighter, Faith. I have to be. Why do you think the rules of fighting favor men, hmm? I'm a hair-puller, too." Lilah seized Faith's hair in her left hand and yanked Faith off her feet. She slammed back-first into the door and crashed through it, reeling into the apartment.

Dazed, Faith fished in her pocket and found the dagger, the one Buffy had ended up driving into her gut. Her turn now, with any luck. Lilah came at her, hands clawed, and Faith drove the knife at her, but once again Lilah went dusty and escaped. A sickly green aura shimmered around Lilah's hands as she slashed again, slicing a bloody gash in Faith's shirt.

Faith rolled aside, but a wave of sick pain boiled up in her stomach. Poison? Shit, that was bad. Lilah strolled casually toward her. "I thought you were better than this, Faith. I'm disappointed. You're the fighter, not me."

Faith struggled to her feet. "...cheated..."

Lilah laughed. "Faith, really now. You've barely seen the half of what I can do." She seized Faith by the arm and yanked her to her feet. "I thought you were a killer. You went to jail for it, didn't you?"

Faith felt her face being slammed into the wall, but only vaguely. She was more aware of the stake sinking into the deputy mayor's chest, the wet meaty thunk of it, the terror in his eyes, the sick feeling as Buffy tried to keep him alive, the _guilt_ she'd had to wall off-- "Stop it! Get out of my head!"

"Make me. You can, you know. Force me out. Get into mine. But you're too good a person for that now. Right?"

"Get...the hell...." Faith struggled to say, only to be rudely interrupted by a cloud of smoke that coalesced into a hooved woman.

"Mara?" Lilah asked with feigned irritation. "I'm in the middle of something here."

"End it," Mara said hastily. "You've proven yourself anyway. We need you in L. A. It's the Prison. It's broken."

"What? Did they all get out?" Prison? 

"We should be so lucky. No, just the opposite. One of them is _stuck_. We can't explain it. We can't fix it. You've got to come help us or all this means nothing, Lilah. Nothing at all."


	30. The Flowers of Simbelmynë

"I can still hardly believe it's real," TARA said, holding the book up to her nose. It held no scent of paper, though it was vaguely floral. "The Wyld's barely accessible from Earth any more, let alone Autochthonia." She sat the book back on the shelf. "I could spend the rest of my life just searching through the books here and die happy."

"Then we're probably on the wrong track," Dawn said, "cause that's a bad sign." She tossed down the book she was looking through. "I knew we'd take ages hunting through the shelves here, so I figured we'd find the right topic and the book would suck us in."

"Heard stranger plans," Spike said. "'Let's go through the Wyld instead of Heaven 'cause Heaven won't let us in' wasn't s'posed to be one of them."

"The Wyld never makes much sense except in storybook logic, Spike," Dawn told him, stepping back and studying the shelves. "The deeper in you go, the less even that applies."

"Well," Stephen said, "I'd just as soon not stay here too long. Didn't you say it turns people into stories?" He riffled through the pages of a book before tossing it aside.

"Not Exalted," TARA said, "but it can do as bad. You're not tattooed. Has your caste settled?" She glanced warily at him.

"Years ago. Apparently it's been thousands of years since the Exaltations were free." With a growl of annoyance, he shoved at one of the shelves, but it didn't budge. "Maybe it's just been long enough far from the Wyld. Of course, I grew up in Quor-Toth, and I'm demon-blooded as well as Lunar."

"It only took a couple of hundred years for them to break," TARA agreed, "and they're supposed to be near-indestructible. I can see them healing in that time."

"I think we're going to have to do something I'm not going to enjoy," said Angel. "What aren't you supposed to do with books?"

"Burn them?" Dawn squeaked, appalled. TARA hid a smile. There was something left of the girl who'd been Buffy's sister. That was good. "I guess...yeah, they're probably a temptation now that I think about it."

"Well an' good," Spike said. "Anyone got a lighter?"

"Let me try something," Dawn said resignedly. "I haven't managed to sit out _all_ the fights, and I've had a good teacher." TARA gave her a worried look. Who'd been teaching her in this timeline?

Dawn closed her eyes and focused. Her skin flickered and shone; her hair and eyes burst alight--not just ablaze, but actually replaced by flame. She touched a finger to the pages of one book, and it burst alight like dry tinder. "Vampires behind TARA." It took only moments before the whole library was consumed in flames.

"We better be right about this," Angel muttered. Even as he spoke, though, the walls fell away in great curtains of fire and left them standing on blistering sand in the dark.

"Why's it so hot when the sun's down?" Connor wondered.

As if in response, a rumble came from behind them. TARA glanced behind them and saw a mountain with its peak and slopes wreathed in liquid flame. "You had to ask," she deadpanned. "Run!"

**Chapter 56--The Flowers of Simbelmynë**

"That's a First Age fleet," Xander said after a moment. "It's too big to be Luthe's. We didn't have enough ships repaired." The wind was picking up as dark clouds rolled in, but that wouldn't do much to either of these fleets.

"It's got an Abyssal in it," Willow said, eyes closed. "At least one."

"Skullstone," Fred breathed. "I sent word back to Leviathan that they'd corrupted Swims-In-Shadow, but I wasn't expecting this."

"He must've realized--or somebody he reported to did--that you and Xander were gone," Shadow murmured. "So they thought Luthe was too lightly defended to hold out." 

After a moment, her double nodded. "They were right," Buffy added, "except for not knowing about Leviathan. Look at the fleet they've got."

Reluctantly Fred nodded. "I should've come back myself."

"You had other things to worry about," Willow consoled her. "Now we just have to turn the tide. And nobody say it. Unless they've got a lot more Exalted in there than we know about to counter us--"

"Yes we can," Xander said with a grim chuckle. "So...how?"

"We have two Abyssals on board," Tara said. "The Deathlords play a lot of politics, but that looks like a pretty even match."

"Someone will appreciate the help," Shadow finished. "Xander, Anya, Fred, and me--get below."

"What about Tara?" Anya asked before Tara herself could get a word in.

"Until we have an in of some kind, she's safest with me," Willow explained. "You guys are going to break for the city underwater once we get a little closer--right?"

"Right," Shadow explained. "And we're going to get you closer," she added, "by making that fleet think we're on their side. Have you figured out a way to do that?"

The Scholar looked as if she were about to say no--and at that moment, Leviathan breached, slamming an immense cruiser into the air with him, spilling bodies like matchsticks. "I know what to do," she said. "I know how to make it work. I just have to fail again."

The Scoobies gave her a strange look, then decided she knew what she was doing and hustled below decks while Shadow steered the ship closer.

Buffy stopped before reaching the hatch. "We've both spent so much time reconnecting with our friends, but...well, I hope we're friends with each other, too."

"I agreed to this thinking I was going to kill you and take over your life," Shadow said. "I'm glad I didn't have to."

Buffy winced, then nodded and pulled something out of her sleeve and unfolded it. "It's nothing special," she said. "Just...I need to get used to being one whole me as much as I need to get used to being lots of me. So I made this. You'll get something out of it and, well, I'll get more."

Shadow fastened it to her wrist. It was a holdout crossbow, sleek and dark and concealable, though mundane. "They don't have these here in most places," she said. "Thanks."

"From me to me," Buffy said, then handed her a large bundle of bolts and hurried out of sight as they neared the fleet.

A tattered figure with a twisted face turned an enraged glare at them as they approached, but Shadow flared her aura and it let them approach. As they neared the ships, though, a mohawked woman in a soulsteel bustier appeared on deck. "Ho there! I am Ebon Siaka, admiral of the Black Fleet! What business have you with us?"

"I am Unconquerable Shadow, and this is the Scholar Hanged from the Tree of Life! We bring aid from the Walker in Darkness!" Willow clasped her hand and Tara's tightly.

"Someone thinks highly of you," Ebon Siaka scoffed. "Why should the Walker in Darkness send us aid? His interests lie on the other side of Creation!"

Willow clutched even tighter as the sea began to boil. "We share one common interest," she said. It might have been a shout, but the roar of the ocean and battle made it a quiet statement.

Leviathan breached again, hurling three midsize ships into the air, and as he did so Willow spoke a few sharp words of command. Black text spiraled about her body, and the immense bulk of the Lunar whale crackled with jet lightning...and vanished. Shadow felt a sharp tug as Willow drew on her essence to share the burden between them.

Willow let go of Shadow's hand. "It didn't hurt Glory," she murmured in her ear, pointing skyward.

Ebon Siaka looked up and took a step backwards in surprise. "Never seen that before. All right, help us drive home the siege and I'll owe you one." She waved her hands about, and other ships began clearing a path.

"He might be mad at us," Tara pointed out sensibly, though it was a little late now.

"He knows tactics," Willow said. The whale above them suddenly shrank out of sight. "And I'm pretty sure he knows we can't hurt him that easily. At least I hope so."

Shadow and Tara groaned as one. Willow was far too focused these days, almost all the time. But what were they going to do about it?

*****

"Here on Bureau of Destiny business," Cordelia said meekly to the Celestial lions. She kept her head down and schooled her face to stillness. Behind her, Gunn, Wesley, Giles, and most importantly Criosyn, all did the same. If they were really lucky, he might even pass for mortal.

They'd been hiding in the city's dark underbelly the last few days, but things were growing increasingly chaotic down there. Anya had a new staff to deal with her clientele of newly-employed gods. The idea was spreading through the Bureau as she'd hoped it might, and though several Sidereals were already working at cross purposes to her, she'd at least gotten the jump on them.

"Hmm," said the lion. "You're that mortal prophet, aren't you? You realize it's not safe out there. Maybe I should call and check for authorization."

"Oh, give over," said the one on the other side. "Who ever heard of having to stop mortals _leaving_ Yu-Shan? If they want to go, let them go. They don't belong here anyway."

That was exactly the response she'd hoped for. She bowed nearly double, hiding the shit-eating grin on her face. "My humble thanks and apologies. We won't be back unless the Exalted summon us here," she said as blandly as possible.

The lions stepped aside and let them pass. "Well," Gunn said blandly, "looks like we finally made it to Paragon."

*****

Lindsey held the door to the Wolfram & Hart Tower open for them personally. "Lilah's hurrying back to meet with you herself," he grumbled. He didn't sound as if he were grumbling, but Harmony heard him doing it anyway.

"What's going on with this Six-Metal Prison thingie?" she asked. Lindsey's look turned patronizing. He didn't know. "Drusilla asked me personally to come here," she said in her most formal tone. "I think you should explain to me."

"Well, I don't know anything about what Drusilla wants," Lindsey drawled. "She's no one important here anyway." Formally true; actually false; but he didn't expect her to know that. He didn't expect her to know anything. "Knox can explain it better than I can."

As he led them through a complicated web of corridors, the mad vampire appeared from a side door and fell in beside Harmony, eyeing her neck. Harmony just pretended to stay casual. "How is Miss Edith?"

"The poor dear has eaten too much," Drusilla mumbled, "and now she's sure to grow fat."

Madness. Harmony nodded patiently and hoped she'd remember why she'd asked Harmony here soon. A skinny nerd was waiting at a glass door ahead of them. Knox, obviously. Harmony didn't trust nerds any more.

Knox didn't wait for preamble or introduction. "It's not that there's anything impeding the power core," he said. "Almost nothing can. It's just sitting there on the edge of the flaw, and nothing can get past it. I tried releasing a few more to see. Nada."

"It was made for one who is dead," Drusilla said dramatically, "and the dead cannot have it. The way is shut." Oh. She was just mangling Lord of the Rings quotes.

"Can you detect anything about it?" Amy asked.

"Not a thing," Knox whined. "But I do know Drusilla hit a combination that hadn't been used before. So a type of core we haven't seen yet."

"Oh," Shoat said. "Kate, there's only one of those left. Sidereal. Snd Sidereal Exaltations are tied to people by destiny, Five said."

"We don't know how that works," Kate said slowly. "But Five did say it was possible they might link to people from within the Prison and just not be able to leave. So what happens if it links to someone and they die?"

"Shouldn't it go on to a new candidate?" Amy asked.

"I'm sure they _should_ ," Shoat agreed, "but what if they don't? It could be sitting there waiting for someone who died five thousand years ago."

"She was so certain," Drusilla mumbled. "So certain her prince would come. But he never, ever did."

"Damn," said Kate. "Well...what are we supposed to do about it? Even if we wanted to help you?"

"The Exaltations have benefitted you more than us," Lindsey pointed out. "And it can't be an accident that they've been found now, with the Slayer gone."

"Um, guys," Harmony said suddenly. "What if there's a reason it doesn't move on?"

"Like what?" Amy sounded like she was being impatient, but she wasn't really. Just anxious.

Harmony took a deep breath. "What if they're not entirely gone?"

Drusilla stopped humming to herself and clapped delightedly. "She knows a thing! So many things she knows! When did that start? Now be a dear and fix it!"

*****

"They what?" Buffy said abruptly. Anya blinked and looked at her. "Sorry. On the phone," she added, tapping her left temple. They were deep underwater right now, swimming beneath several lines of Skullstone ships. Still undetected...so far.

 _Iron Siaka says Mnemon's insulting me,_ the clone...the _self_ she'd left on the throne said. _If it was completely above board she'd have a few candidates already on the way to see who I like best._

 _Can I trust her on this?_ Iron Siaka was a reluctant advisor at best, but she hadn't just killed Buffy's double yet. She claimed to owe Anya.

 _Aphrodisia agrees with her. She's not from Creation, but she knows her power plays._ There was a hesitation. _She also says I should marry several husbands. Wives too if I want._

 _Well...it's not like there's not enough of me to go around,_ Buffy responded, laughing nervously.

_Apparently it's the norm here for Exalted to have lots of consorts. Usually only one husband or wife, but as Exalted we get to make our own rules. I tried asking her if we couldn't just be monogamous then and she gave me a funny look. Not sure if Exalted look or neomah look, though._

_What's Siaka suggest?_ She swam slowly so as not to leave Xander and Anya behind. Three more rows.

 _Not sure how serious she is. She suggested I propose to_ Mnemon _. I don't think she expects her to accept, but she might be saying I should shoot for the moon, not just making a joke._

Buffy acknowledged that and closed the connection. Siaka and Aphrodisia might have a valid point. Even if just being an Exalt didn't make her oversexed--and if she was going to be honest with herself, Faith had had the right of it--how was she expecting to live multiple lives but only have one person's sex life? She quickly left instructions with the c...the self she had on research to try and find info on Exalted rulers and her party self to double down.

"Sorry guys," she said, and explained.

"Have you thought about succession?" Fred asked.

"What?"

"Even Solars don't live forever, and we could still die in a lot of ways. Part of the reason I'm having Leviathan's baby is so that, if Luthe doesn't figure out how to combine democracy with hyper-competent Exalts any time soon, I have a clear successor. You need to think about that too."

Buffy felt herself go a little pale. "I'll add it to my list." She wanted kids, she thought, but the idea of having her body swell up and her hormones go wonky didn't exactly appeal. Anyway, she had thousands of years. Probably.

"Okay, guys," Xander said, "I need space for what I'm going to try. Buffy, you especially need to be out of the way. Sorry. Let's split up."

"Normally that's a bad idea," Anya said, "but we need to hit them from all sides anyway."

"I'm fastest," Buffy said. "I'm headed for the far side. Good luck, everyone."

She took off at top speed, aiming to pass Luthe by as narrow a margin as possible, angling gradually up. Her powers seemed to work pretty much the same individually even when that meant they added up in strange ways. If she ran across the water as a giant--

 ** _Storm,_** said the demon in her head. _**Long dry time. Out! Please! Out!**_ It had been dormant for a while, seeming bored save once when a sandstorm had struck and it had begged to stand out in it a while. 

_I'll be topside in a few minutes. That's the best I can do._ She wasn't even sure the storm was coming this way.

 _ **Ouuut!**_ It was equal parts demand and plea. If anything, the creature sounded even more pitiful than it had during the sandstorm.

 _I haven't got a way to let you out,_ Buffy told it, almost regretfully. That was foolish. It was a monster, not like the kinds of demon that could be good or bad. It was a predator that craved blood as certainly as any vampire.

The radeken broke down into furious howls. She could actually feel it thrashing around inside her. She broke the surface and began to run amidst the heaving ships. If she could let it free of her she--

Something shifted unexpectedly and a wave of shadow flowed over her as she ran. What good would a disguise be here? She was running on water!

And then she wasn't. Her foot came down with a splash and she toppled forward into the ocean, thrashing. _**Out!**_ That was a triumphant howl, not an angry, begging one. What was--? Her face felt strange and stiff; her fingers seemed locked together; and an unfamiliar set of muscles were flexing on her back.

She lifted her...paw?!...out of the water. It had the tawny fur of a huge puma, if a drenched one. It was an illusion. It was just an illusion. The muscles on her back flexed harder; there was a rushing sound and the water fell away from her. It was an illusion. She couldn't _really_ be a demon.

And there was no way in hell ahe was flying.

*****

Fred burst free of her mostly-human shape, tentacles waving, and sucked water up into her mantle. Her siphon flexed and she jetted backwards through the water. The squid shape no longer felt even slightly alien to her; in fact she had missed it. Tentacles lashing, she flung zombies from every deck she passed and shook every ship light enough, but none of those were her main target.

Leviathan. Where was he? He had been in the water, slamming ships about, but now...

A gull skimmed the sea surface and suddenly grew to vast size, crushing Skullstone hulls against each other as it hurled them aside. Leviathan was fighting smarter than when she'd maddened him with rage, but he still favored his whale form--which, granted, was bigger than most of the ships here.

"Leviathan," she signaled. "I'm back with my friends. Please watch out for them. How can we help?"

"Dreamer-of-Reason." It was a mixture of whalesong and anima flare; she should have understood none of it, but his power translated into cephalopod for her. "I had begun to think you had abandoned your people. I was not pleased with you."

"I don't abandon my responsibilities," Fred flashed back. "Just...sometimes I've got too many of them. Dealing with Buffy took longer than planned, plus we had to kill Ma-Ha-Suchi."

She hadn't expected the drawn-out earshattering moan of grief. "I will trust you had reason. I know his mind was unwell. Still, I will mourn him long. You did well, if you were able to kill one of his strength. Rally your city, Dreamer. I will fight here. Go!"

Fred turned and shot toward Luthe. She was queen, and she had a people to fight for.

*****

 _Approaching Obsidian Shores_ wasn't going to stop for him, but that was all right. The Dread Pirate Roberts didn't need it to.

A loose tow line swung past Xander, and he seized hold of it, hauling himself out of the water and running up the metal hull. He wasn't even really certain he needed it. His boots hit the deck. "Captain Redfang! Admiral on board!"

"Admiral on board!" Redfang repeated. "The Dread Pirate Roberts has returned!" The whole crew raised the cry for him, while Redfang murmured, "Actually, it's Commodore now."

"Congratulations," Xander told him. "Get ready." Where was Buffy? He'd kind of expected to see some sign of her. She was still the most powerful of them. "Get close and prepare for a boarding action."

The commodore gave him an odd look. "Against those things? As you say, Admiral. Starboard! Prepare boarding anchors!"

As the ship drew alongside one of the zombie vessels, Xander leapt onto the railing, Wavecleaver raised, and shouted his battle cry: "I am the Dread Pirate Roberts! There will be no survivors! The Dread Pirate Roberts is here for your souls!" The words boomed out across the ocean, and glowing figures manifested behind him by the score. More than a distraction this time.

He vaulted onto the enemy ship, phantom army following. Swords and arrows of light struck home, burning ghosts, searing zombies. Blazing auralight shone around him, the golden of a California sun, and the dead burned as they fell. "Take the ship for loot, Luthe, and the Dread Pirate Roberts!"

The boarding party sang and cheered as they leapt over the rails behind him. And in the distance, the thrashing form of a giant shark burned black against the sky in answer.

*****

Anya let the crew haul her in like a drowning sailor. They were a motley mixture of Luthea Dragon-Blooded--mostly Waters--and sharkpeople. Less than a year ago this would have been impossible, but Fred and, to a lesser extent, Xander had forged them together. Granted, the ravening zombies attacking them both didn't hurt relations any.

She unlimbered her starmetal powerbow. A normal bowstring would be ruined, of course, after that little trip underwater, but the thin metal strand of this baby was perfectly fine. She'd have to choose her targets carefully; there were only so many arrows aboard this ship.

There. A twisted ghost--a nephwrack--commanded that battleship nearby. She notched an arrow, squinted faintly, and loosed, green Wood energies crackling invisibly around the arrow. The arrow arched up, fell...and pierced the howling spirit through, pinning it to the deck. She fired off a second arrow, catching it there briefly helpless, and it screeched as it faded into Oblivion.

Next target.

*****

"Are we really going to transform Drusilla into a human again?" Oz wondered. "Just so she can be some type of Exalted we don't know the powers of? Because that sounds dangerous, if you ask me."

"Wolfram and Hart are going to do it no matter what we do," Kate said. "I'd honestly like to think this could put a stop to new Exaltations, but they're not going to let that happen."

"How do they expect to pull it off?" Amy asked. "Wasn't Harmony a fluke? And they can't put an Infernal Exaltation in her now, if they ever could have."

Kate shrugged and studied the paintings in the hall. "Lilah's convinced the Mohra blood is all there is to it, and Drusilla is going along with whatever she says. They've got a Mohra on retainer for senior staff, and they're bleeding him now." She studied her faint reflection in a darkened office window. "Is my face smoothing out?"

"You know all human faces look alike to me, Mama Bear, but Fred did say you've got several thousand years ahead of you," Lorne reminded her. "i wouldn't be surprised if you lost your laugh lines. As for the rest...I'm thinking we're only here because Her Royal Madness asked Harmony to visit. Professional courtesy, maybe?"

Lilah's screams echoed down the halls suddenly, and Kate broke into a dead run. She burst through a pair of swinging doors, past a bored Mohra on her way out, and nearly collided with Lilah sitting in the floor cradling Drusilla's body. "No, no, no...for fuck's sake, Darla, you're bleeding over--do you even know what the name he gave you means? Stop lying to yourself!--You think I'm the one who can't stop crying for her? Drusilla, no...."

Kate sank down next to her. Drusilla was breathing, shallowly but steadily, but that was all. Kate passed a hand in front of her eyes. Drusilla didn't even try to track it.

No one was home in there.

*****

She was flying.

This was one hell of an illusion. Her imaginary wings were stroking the very real air and she was shooting away from the battle towards some stormclouds.

_**Stupid least gods, fooled by your illusion, heh? Storm! Catch the storm!** _

_That storm is moving away from where we need to be, Sineya._ She was the one in control. She could turn around. But the illusion was as real as ever. She could feel the faint burn of muscles in her back, the raw power in her folded, waiting legs, the shearing strength of her beak. She felt alive, felt strong, felt _wild_ \--did Fred feel like this when she changed? And she felt a craving for the storm, a hunger involuntarily denied for five thousand years or more. No wonder Sineya had just gone to sleep.

_**Catch, eat, use! Storm is ours!** _

_Damn it, Sineya, I can't do it! I don't have your old powers!_ The radeken was bleeding through into her feelings. She knew she couldn't catch the storm, yet she wanted to so badly she couldn't stand to stop.

She plunged into the tempest. Wind screamed around her wings. Lightnings lashed at her. Rain pelted her fur.

All three vanished inside, filled her, swelled an imaginary gut to capacity. _**Can't can't can't liar stupid liar**_ She felt bloated, almost lazy, but it was power she was bloated with. _**Hate them hate them turn and blast the dead things off their stupid ships hate them with me Buffy hate them like our mother/maker hates**_

Well. As requests went, that one was easy. Buffy turned and soared toward the fleet.

*****

Ebon Siaka was in a foul mood, it seemed, and no wonder. "Where the hell are these Exalts coming from? The whale was bad enough! Archer to the north pinning down my nephwracks, Roberts of all people to the South with an 'army of light' doing his work for him, and now a squid flinging my crew into the water! You two and your pet mortal better be worth the trouble."

Where was Buffy? Never mind. "You can bet we are," Willow said coolly. She turned her gaze on the woman, feeling her eyes crackle and burn with power. "Just not to you." Black lightning shot from her eyes--she didn't even have to raise her hands now!--and crackled around...that big honking mace Siaka was carrying. Darn it!

"Why, you traitorous bitches--" Siaka bounded over the railing and ten feet of open water, landing in a crouch on the deck. "I'll have your heads for the Prince to hang on his walls!"

Shadow lifted her crossbow and fired. Siaka brought her goremaul up contemptuously, and the bolt passed right through it to lodge in Siaka's throat just above her armor. "First blood to the newbie!" she said with a grin.

"Don't be silly," Willow said as Siaka yanked the bolt free. "You're a veteran of Ma-Ha-Suchi, even if we don't count all the stuff from when you were part of Buffy." She poured on another barrage of lightning while Tara focused on holding a barrier against arrows and energy bolts from the other ship. She was getting better at the combat magics, but Willow worried about her. More and more she seemed to be tagging along just to stay with Willow. Which, well, she appreciated on one level, but it was going to get her killed.

Willow shivered. Even with all her feelings on mute, the image of a pallid black-haired Tara was disturbing. But she'd never accept. She didn't want to Exalt at all.

Siaka spun like a twister and brought down that maul at Shadow's head, but Shadow lunged aside, taking only a glancing blow to the shoulder, and Shadow drove a bolt into Siaka's butt at point-blank range. Red-black energy howled around the missile; Siaka just howled and thrashed. Pain. Pain was a good idea. Ice was another one. Willow "adjusted the frequency" on her lightnings and sealed Siaka inside a coating of it.

Siaka burst free with a roar of rage and charged at Willow. This was gonna hurt; this was gonna be fun. Those went together now.

*****

Fred reached up with her tentacles and dragged herself aboard the flagship _Future Vision_ , reverting to human form as she flopped onto the deck. "My queen," Tomazri called out. He rushed over, unquestionably happy to see her, but he seemed discontented as well. "I thought," he murmured as he neared her, "that you had abandoned us to Leviathan's mercies."

"Leviathan and I...came to terms," she said just as quietly. "He agreed to mind the city while I was away and not change my policies regarding you."

"He has not," Tomazri said unhappily, "but I think he does not believe in them, for he makes little effort to enforce them. Ftaghn-Vlu!"

A young Deep Sage dressed incongruously in a military uniform hustled over. "Yes, Commodore! Queen Winifred!"

"Your orders were that no family was to expel Dragon-Blooded who exalt among the Scionborn," Tomazri said, "and none do--but strangely no one will claim these orphans when they appear."

"Truly the blood of the Dragons has spread throughout Creation," Ftaghn-Vlu said sourly.

Fred grimly hung on to her straight face. "What's your aspect, young lady?"

" _Air_ ," she grumbled. No wonder she wasn't happy. She couldn't even take comfort in her powers. Poor kid.

"I will do my best to enforce those policies now that I'm back, Commodore. I apologize if I can't find everyone." She gave Tomazri a pat on the back. "I'm sorry for any trouble while I was gone. I'll see it fixed. Let's get to work."

*****

"Lasa orbita sa fie vasul care-i va transporta, sufletul la...." Amy came to a halt. "Guys, this isn't working. I can feel it."

"Is it because she's alive?" Lilah asked. She sat hunched at Drusilla's side. The slow, steady beep of the heart monitor and her shallow breathing were the only signs that the ex-vampire was now living...after a fashion. "The spell does say 'Not dead nor of the living,' after all."

"That's a good thought," Kate said, "but look at her. Would you call this life, Lilah?"

"Hardly." Seeing the woman with red eyes and a tear-streaked face was somehow profoundly disturbing.

"It's not the spell," Amy concluded. "It's me. I just haven't got the pull to make it happen."

"You are, in some sense, summoning a ghost," Five Days' Darkness mused. "Sorcery is ill-suited to that. No surprise that none save Willow have managed to ensoul a vampire in centuries. Only a rare few god-bloods and the Slayer have been able to cast Celestial sorcery, even in principle, for many thousands of years."

"Shit," Amy groaned. "Now what do we do?"

"We modify the spell in some minor ways, to fit a different set of principles," Five explained. "And then," he added, taking a deep breath, "we find ourselves a necromancer."

Harmony's eyes bugged out.

*****

She needed a hell of a lot more arrows for this, damn it! Anya wished she'd learned more combat charms that didn't involve bows, but there was more to life than fighting, and of course she'd been drawn to utility powers that'd let her do things the others couldn't match yet. Though of course they mostly had. Worse luck, apparently Sidereals were somehow the only Exalts who couldn't make up new charms. Her resplendency powers weren't much use in this situation either; she'd chosen her masks for inconspicuousness in the city.

Well, the hell with it. She leaned back into the strands of fate and let them rebound her up and over the gap between ships as rain began to pelt the decks. She knew enough to go on with. With so many of the monster ghosts down, several nearby ships were crewed by mindless zombies. She could scythe them down in minutes.

She began to tear dead flesh and crush dead bone, only to hear a monstrous roar and splash as something emerged from the sea. A...thing...nine feet tall, crusted with bone, with huge sharp fins and a shark's great toothy maw. "I am Swims-in-Shadow, little girl. I was Leviathan's ally when your grandparents' grandparents were but a glimmer in the future's eye. Run back to the city, and maybe you can run fast enough to escape my war ghosts, baby Sidereal." Anya did the only thing she could do. She began to laugh her ass off. "What is so humorous, child?"

He still might kill her dead. She didn't yet have the full power of her station. Then again.... "Ma-Ha-Suchi couldn't kill me, Swims-in-Shadow. You're welcome to a go. I'm Anyanka, Patron Saint of the Scorned and Chooser of the Slain, and if anyone's thread ends here it'll be yours."

He roared and launched himself at her.

*****

Lightning scythed down on the deck as Xander vaulted to another ship, followed now by a small contingent of Terrestrials. "Did you summon that thing?"

"I did not!" Cynis Megara said, embarrassed. "I am not a fool, to summon an unbound radeken into Creation!"

"It's not bound?" Jesus, that made him antsy! Granted, he was pretty sure he could take it down nowadays, but still!

"You poor lost fellow," Megara purred. "I could give you an education you'll never forget. Teach you the ways of demons and magic and...other things." All the Terrestrials were like this unless they were cursing him as Anathema, all the women and most of the men too, and they seemed baffled when he turned them down! Megara was big-eyed and pretty, though not exactly a knockout. Under other circumstances....

Lightning blasted a spine chain to bits, and the radeken skidded to a halt on the deck. "Xander," it growled through a skull-white beak.

He hefted the blaster pistol he'd taken from Ebon Siaka. "That's the Dread Pirate Roberts to you, demon," he growled back.

"Damn it, Xander, it's bad enough that Giles doesn't recognize me when I look different, but I thought we were friends." It stepped closer to him, mindful of the footing, and began to cough. "Damn throat!"

"That's very unusual coloration for a radeken," Megara observed. "Tawny and white, when most are grey-black."

"Yeah, yeah, dragon-lady," the radeken growled. "Long dry time. I never hear the end of it."

"Buffy?" Xander sputtered.

"In the...ahem...flesh," the demon said. "Supposedly this is technically an illusion but it feels...extremely real. Before you ask, though, yes, I'm still in the driver's seat. The kibitzing's louder though." There was a hesitation. "My throat! Sorry, Sineya, I've got to get out of this thing and talk a minute." Shadows rippled over the monster; it stood on its hind legs and, sure enough, was Buffy.

"So this is her in action?" Xander jumped as Anja dropped onto the deck in a crouch. "Seriously, Harris, what is the matter with you? Speaking as your mate and wingman, _I'd_ tap that. Hell, one catgirl to another, I'd tap the demon but that's a Lunar thing. Tell me again why you call it tapping? That sounds too gentle a motion."

"Excuse me?" Buffy said, raising her eyebrows.

"Buffy, this is my Lunar mate, Anja Silverclaws. No jokes, Ahn's done them already." He shook his head. "Anja, this is Buffy...wait. I thought you two met at the audit."

"If by 'met' you mean I was a flea in your hair while she testified. I'm not _that_ informal, Harris." She glanced back at Buffy. "What's this I hear about you killing my teacher Ma-Ha-Suchi?"

"What it is is he was a raving loonie--er,crazy person--who brought a horde of bloodthirsty monsters into my city. So I did what I always do to monsters. I slayed him." Buffy unlimbered the Scythe from its sheath on her back.

Anja grinned. "Good riddance. I hated being in debt to a madman. Thanks." She grabbed Buffy by the shoulders and planted a kiss on her lips. "There, Harris. That's how you do it. It's easy." She spun and kissed Cynis Megara too. "I've seen much prettier Terrestrials, but this one's a savant and a Cynis, Harris. I guarantee she's a mutant in a bag."

Xander groaned. "That's 'freak in the sack'."

Anja laughed. "However you want to say it. Haven't you noticed it yet? How after a good fight you're always hungry and horny?"

"Uhhh..." Xander glanced at Buffy. "Sometimes I crave a nonfat yogurt." Buffy facepalmed and Anja looked confused. "In-joke. Sorry."

"No worries," Anja said.

"The fight is not over yet," Megara pointed out. "And it could be hours still. I suggest we hasten the ending." She batted her lashes at...all three of them, it looked like.

"Buffy, you with us?" Xander gestured at the hatch. "We'll clear out the undead and--"

Buffy shook herself. "Um...love to...but Sineya wants to fly. If I can keep her happy in a way that doesn't involve eviscerations, I probably should." Shsdows rippled over her, and she dropped to all fours before taking off toward the stormcloud again.

"More for us," Megara giggled.

Anja stared at her. "How do you figure _that_?"

*****

Anya's hands scythed through yet another bone-legged shark, sending it bleeding to the deck. Swims-in-Shadow hadn't yet deigned to face her personally, but she was starting to wonder if she should want him to. Her heart was back in its proper place, and she was slowly tiring. He seemed as vigorous as ever.

Damn the Maidens! If she was scheduled by Fate to be a Sidereal elder, why couldn't she have gotten her Exaltation on time? Well...she'd still have been a vengeance demon...which would make it impossible or else very very bad...and she'd never have met Xander...argh, there was no help for it, was there?

He was going to wear her down before she fought him at all. It wasn't time to hold back. Dark violet flashed around her hands, and she drove the edge of her palm into his throat.

His own hand came up to block it. The transformed Lunar laughed contemptuously at her. No. She had hurt Ma-Ha-Suchi; she could hurt this thing. How?

A nearly-naked girl with crystal hair appeared on the cabin roof beyond Swims-in-Shadow. Who? Ah, right, the Autochthonian man-stealer. Regrettably, she was probably here to help Anya. She hurled a spike-toothed sawblade at the Lunar and only then called out, "Anya! I'm glad I found you in time! Your death would sit ill with Alexander."

"I wouldn't be too pleased either!" Anya shouted back. She grabbed a huge, broken leg bone and stabbed Swims-in-Shadow with it as he dodged the diamond buzzsaw. Better than nothing.

Nelumbo laughed as if it were a joke. "I've been pinned up in the fighting here almost since you left. Did you catch a rogue Alchemical?" A pair of the howling spectres swirling about the ship tried to seize her, but she bodyslammed one into the other and sent both flying.

"The Architect's on our side and on her way back." Anya forced Swims-in-Shadow to dodge backward into the circling blade, and he howled in pain. "I'll explain the rest when we're done here."

Nelumbo nodded and flickered forward in a shining blur to collect her weapon and attempt to punch the sharkman in the face. He caught her fist and drew her into a wrestling hold. As if nothing were the least bit wrong, she said "I'm sorry about the confusion surrounding Xander and our various worlds' sexual mores. Here in Creation it's presumed that Exalts have many lovers, and to some extent Autochthonia is the same, though as we grow closer to the thoughts of the Machine God..." Here Swims-in-Shadow suddenly went flying. Anya couldn't tell what had happened. "...it's presumed that our passions cool. And in your world there was only one remaining Exalt and monogamy was the norm." The Lunar got back up, but Anya kicked him in the head. "As for me, I thought Xander would soon forget me in much the same way he'd already forgotren you. The Adamant caste lead very lonely lives, and I didn't know you existed because he couldn't tell me."

Swims-in-Shadow surprised Anya by diving over the side. "I guess I forgive you," she said. "I had no room to talk."

Nelumbo shrugged. "The passions of Exalted are as epic as their power, they say--Solars most of all, of course, but the rest of us in rough proportion, as I'm sure you'll discover. There are a few tales of epic chastity or epic fidelity, to be sure, but in all honesty I didn't peg either of you for that sort." She slammed one hand through the heart of a ghost, which crumbled to mist, then nothing.

Anya raised an eyebrow. "Anyanka at your service, patron saint of women scorned."

Nelumbo chuckled. "No offense intended, but you don't seem scorned to me. Alexander loves you very much. And tells me that you first propositioned him by dropping your clothing. You are clearly no asectic. If I might be so forward, I was hoping we might all get together, your lovers and his, before I depart this world again."

Anya stood there with her mouth open for what felt like a year. "We'll see. Are we just going to stand here for the duration or get back into the fight?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

*****

Dawn slowed to a halt. Her body might be imaginary, but she sure did _feel_ tired. "We've outrun the lava. Anybody for catching our breaths?"

"Not me," said Angel, but he grinned and began to massage his calves. Spike just grunted.

"There," TARA said. She pointed at a two-story building set low on the beach. "I think that's our destination. You said the Wyld usually makes a beginning, middle, and end?"

Dawn nodded. "After this we'll be on the ocean, but I think any fae living here will have some kind of transport, probably better than mortals would."

"What're we waiting for?" Stephen asked and set off at once for the building, which proved to have a sign proclaiming it the "Come On Inn." Dawn and TARA both rolled their eyes at that.

Behind the desk were a slender, dark-haired man and a buxom blonde woman. "In the morning you'll be able to board a ship and go on," the man said as equally-attractive attendants prepared their rooms.

"The ship is part of a freehold, though," the woman warned. "If you lie with any of the fae in the freehold you won't be able to leave."

"Lie with?" Spike asked. Dawn almost snapped at him before realizing he was being cautious rather than stupid.

"Ah...have sexual relations with," the man said. "You needn't worry about merely lying down."

"Always best to check for exact wording," Spike said as they were led away. "Huh." He looked down. "Oh hell."

"I see you've noticed," Dawn said crankily. "I figured out right away. The inn's also part of the freehold, and either we've been dosed with something or it's just the nature of the waypoint to turn visitors on." She made a face. "Lock your doors--you can't count on consent mattering in this. And do whatever you need to to stay in control of yourself. I don't know how strong the effect will be."

Stephen shrugged. "Only women around for most of my life were my stepmom and sister. You don't have to worry about me."

"We'd better not have to worry about anyone," TARA said. "I'll stay with any of you if you'd like."

Angel shook his head. "I'll deal," he said patiently. "Spike?"

"Yeah. No worries, Shiny. Everyone'll be fine."

Dawn hoped so. But this was clearly a stupid commoner trick. There'd never been any real chance of falling for it, only of succumbing. She locked her door too. Likely none of them would sleep tonight.

*****

Harmony sat by Faith's bedside and held her hand. The Slayer...er, well, the Night...was looking pale still but she seemed to be on the mend from Lilah's supernatural poison. "They want me to do it. To ensoul Drusilla. And I'm not...I don't see why they're not freaking out that I'll fail, cause I sure am."

Faith grinned weakly at her. "Two months ago I didn't know I could fly. You'll do what you've got to do, Harm. Has Five ever let on why this is so important?"

"No," she quavered. "He just tells us the apocalypse is coming and we've got to have as many Exaltations free as possible."

"Okay," Faith said confidently. "I want you to listen to me. If Drusilla is really destined for this the way Five says it works, then she has been since she waa born. But there's no way she could've Exalted back then, so she must've been meant to be a vampire. And there's no way for her to Exalt as a vampire, so she must've been meant to be changed back. Which means this is _your_ destiny, right now. It all got planned out, see?"

"I see," Harmony said. Not too long ago she wouldn't have been able to follow that. But there was one problem with it. "But isn't Fate all messed up now? What if it's screwed the whole thing up?"

Faith squeezed her hand. "Then you do what Exalted do. You fix it."

*****

Shadow was keeping the pressure up as best she could. She had run out of bolts a while back--or at least Tara thought she had. Somehow or other she still seemed to have a bolt at hand whenever she reached for one, but now they were shards of blackened bone.

Willow's lightnings were getting fewer and further between. She was able to draw off energy from the creatures she struck, Ebon Siaka included, but it was never quite enough to replenish her supplies.

Both of them were better off than Tara. She'd given up the last of her magicks to Willow an hour ago for a spell. Mostly she was just clinging to a railing while the storm that had somehow teleported over here grew worse and Ebon Siaka's anima flared periodically. She was weakening, but not fast enough.

A malicious hissing filled her ears, and a writhing tangle of ectoplasm soared through the air in Shadow's and Willow's direction. Tara flung up her hand at the monstrous ghost before remembering just how useless that was. The creature turned, slowly, and fixed her in its malevolent green gaze.

"Witch-child," snarled a voice over her shoulder. Tara spun to find a woman behind her, a barbarian dressed all in furs and crowned with two silver horns. "Oops. I wasn't looking for a simpering girl. I was looking for the one who was told she had demon powers and decided to learn how to use them. The runaway. The bad brat looking for knowledge she could never use and a lover she wasn't allowed. I was looking for Tara Maclay."

Why hadn't the ghost struck her down by now? She glanced over her shoulder to see it frozen in place. When she turned back she saw, instead, a hard-faced short-haired woman in silver armor, a bow on her back. "This suit ya better? More what ya were expecting from me? Still waiting for an answer."

"I'm T-tara M-maclay," she stammered. "What do you want from me?"

"Came here to rescue your friend, huh? To protect your lover? Good job, witch-child. You couldn't light a candle with what you've got left. Weak. You're waiting for someone to come save ya and then go away, am I right? Why am I bothering with ya, Tatara Muhmaclay?" The goddess--it had to be a goddess--sneered. "You don't interest me at all."

"Stop it!" Wait. Was that her shouting? "You're not supposed to be like this! You're not supposed to treat people like this! Just stop!"

The deity seized her by the throat. "Did you just tell a _Celestial Incarna_ what not to do?"

"I did," she managed to wheeze, meaning to apologize rather than deny, but Luna nodded and set her down.

"Maybe you are who I'm looking for. You realize you just antagonized a powerful spectre and you haven't got shit to back it up with, plus there's a deathknight just waiting to stab ya as soon as you're worth the effort. You're going to die, witch-child. I'll give your friends even odds, but they're new and running low. I got a shiny new present for ya, but you've got to give me an honest answer to one question. Do you want power?"

Tara started running through the reasons why power was dangerous. It was an obvious test. "Stop," Luna said. "The only doomed moral victors in this world are, well, doomed. Look at the situation. Your friends. Yourself. It's not a hard question. Do. You. Want.Power?"

When she put it that way.... "Yes. I want power. I want to live through this and save my friends."

"Ya had me at yes," the archer chuckled. Luna seized Tara by the waist, bent her backward, and kissed her hard on the mouth. There was a flash of silver light--

A bolt of silver light from her hand struck the ghost and sent it hurtling away. Tara jumped, startled; the vision had passed. Fragmented memories spilled through her head, bits and pieces really:

_\--wheedling; no one could resist for long--_

_\--towers falling as the Dragon-Blooded hurled fire and lightning--_

_\--no, no, no! My feet!--_

_\--rutting wolfmen--_

_\--Buffy's enraged face as she tore him apart from the inside out--_

Tara stumbled again. Too much! Obviously huge pieces had been erased but--

"You." Ebon Siaka vaulted the railings. "Can't have another of you here. No, best to end you before you get started." Willow was lying on the deck, her arm twisted behind her. Shadow raised her crossbow, a monstrous maw full of fangs looming behind her, but Ebon Siaka batted the bolt aside without a backward glance.

Tara watched her come. Step by step. Let her try if she wanted. Ebon Siaka raised her maul. Tara raised her left hand and spoke words she'd known for some time, words she'd never had the power to back up. "Goddess Hecate, work thy will. Before thee let the unclean thing crawl."

A vast scaly form flickered silver around Tara, and Ebon Siaka's mace and bustier clattered to the deck. The rat nipped Tara as she scooped it up; she made no move to stop it.

"Tara?" Shadow said, staring. "Are you--?"

Tara dashed the rat head-first against the railing, then hurled it into the tossing sea. "Sometimes," she said, almost too quietly to hear, "you just have to show the bad guys their insect reflection."

She picked up the bustier.

*****

Xander knew he hadn't come full circle yet. There was just too much ocean to cover. Somehow, though, wherever he looked the only enemy ships he could see were captured or sinking. Essence fire from the cannons and the Dragon-Blooded still filled the air, but it seemed to be dwindling.

There! The Black Fleet was disengaging, trying to run. It still had a large chunk of the vessels it'd started with, but they'd done a hell of a lot of damage.

"They have chosen to flee like the cowards they are," said Leviathan over his shoulder. "Swims-in-Shadow yet lives. I saw him clamber aboard a ship."

"He won't get away," Fred said, coming up the ladder from the sea. "He can run all the way back to Skullstone if he wants, but he won't get away."

Xander peered curiously at her. "What're you planning?"

"Sorry," she said. "I'll tell you later when I hammer out some details." Fred stared out over the burning wreckage. Not all of it was Black Fleet. "Also...Leviathan, my friends weren't trying to do you any harm. I hope you know that."

"I'll take that into account," the ancient Lunar rumbled. "Not everything is forgiveable."

Fred's gaze swept over the retreating ships. All she said was, "I know."

*****

Dawn lifted her foot to climb into the sailing ship. Well...she tried to. Her boots stuck fast in sucking mud that hadn't been there beforehand.

"A pity you didn't pay attention," said the innkeeper. "We warned you. You'll never escape now."

Dawn rounded on him. "What the hell--? I spent the whole night locked in my room! Which of you did I 'lie with'?" She'd gotten no sleep at all; none of them had. Stephen was yawning, Spike and Angel were pointedly not looking at each other, and Dawn herself was trying hard not to walk bowlegged. The whole night. By herself, damn it!

The commoners stared at one another. No one seemed to know anything. "But you plainly can't leave," the innkeeper said. "You must have lain with a fae in the freehold. Those are the rules."

"Dawn," TARA said urgently, "he didn't say 'of". Just 'in'."

Dawn took a moment to mull that over. "Well, crap."

*****

The circle had been replaced with grave dirt over the doctor's objections; the candles were black. Harmony sat cross-legged on the floor to the left of the bed.

"Whatever you're going to do," the doctor said, "do it fast. Her brain activity's nil and her heart rate is falling even with adrenaline."

Of course it was. Drusilla's body was human, with nothing inside. You couldn't keep a soulless body alive forever.

"Quod perditum est, invenietur," Harmony chanted. Her memory wasn't a problem--just pronunciation. Maybe the spirits wouldn't stress over a missed syllable. "Nici mort, nici al finitei, te invoc spirit al trecerii."

Amy was watching over her. There wasn't much she could do if Harmony screwed this up, but the moral support helped.

"Gods, bind her; cast her heart from the evil realm. Let her know the pain of humanity, gods. Reach your wizened hands to me. Give me the sword." Who was it she was invoking, anyway? The Neverborn? But why would they let this happen, especially now?

Maybe they weren't going to. The beeping from Drusilla's heart monitor became erratic; an alarm began to wail. "Get the pads!" Amy shouted. "We have to shock her!"

The doctor glared at her. "I'm not going to interfere in the final moments of a brain-dead body," he said calmly. "This ritual magic business is--"

Amy shoved him aside telekinetically and grabbed the defibrillator. Everything had been prepped for this already; why was the doctor balking now? "Clear!"

For a moment the steady heartbeat resumed. "A?a s? fie cu ajutorul acestui magic glob de cristal," Harm said hastily. The beeping faltered again.

"Clear!" Someone should tell Amy that was just a warning so other people didn't get shocked. Harmony was busy.

"A?a s? fie! A?a s? fie!"

"Shit! C'mon, damnit! You made it this far!"

"Acum! Acum!" The orb flared a brilliant white and vanished. The beeping halted. The alarm blared unabated.

She'd failed. She'd failed _everyone_. Harmony struggled to her feet and wobbled over to the bed where Amy was still futilely trying to jumpstart Drusilla's heart. "Stop," Harmony said. "It's over." She reached out and pushed the paddles and Amy's hands away.

Harmony bent over Drusilla's body. She might have been sleeping, even with her gown open down the front like that. That was Drusilla for you. "I'm sorry," she said, and kissed her gently on the forehead where her caste mark should have been.

The room flared with brilliant purple light. Harmony opened her eyes and looked up to see an immense violet unicorn rearing above her. Another light burst to life, this one green, emanating from the spot on Dru's forehead where Harmony had kissed her, and the sigil of Jupiter scrawled itself there.

Harmony was still staring up at the beautiful unicorn when a pair of hands pulled her down and someone kissed her on the lips as soundly as she'd ever been kissed.

"Of _course_ her prince never came. There had never been a prince at all."

Harmony recoiled. "Ugh! Girl spit! Ew!"

Drusilla sat up slowly, as if testing her limbs. "What do you think was in your mouth before, dear? Don't ruin the story, or I shall have to be cross with you."

Well...it looked like everyone lived happily ever after. For now. Here came Lilah, and Darla with her of course. That secret was out at least.

Drusilla narrowed her eyes. "And to think I went through all that trouble with Eye and Seven Despairs for nothing."

*****

Holtz stared down into the depths of the Pole of Smoke. He should never have brought Justine and Sarah with him. They were surely going to die here. But they had demanded, and like a fool he had given in.

The fumes roiled and briefly parted. Specks of light shone in the darkness like stars emerging from behind the clouds.

A voice crackled and ratcheted at his right side. "Welcome, Solar. Welcome, Daniel Holtz. Welcome to Ralacken...the Gremlin City."


	31. Victory and Defeat

Buffy stretched out in the sun on the top deck of Luthe. _Can we absorb a heat wave? Or just a regular sunny day?_

 _ **Can you eat brussels sprouts?**_ The radeken seemed to be slowly picking up on humor--sharp, dry humor, but she had no room to talk there. _**Why bask in clothes?**_

 _I'm wearing a_ bikini, Buffy answered, but the radeken only laughed uproariously. Maybe it did have a point. What was she covering up anyway, and why? Fred's Lunar friends Kolohi and Renjin were simply naked, and had even enticed the relatively demure girl into going topless today. Being a Lunar was changing her, albeit slowly.

Exaltation had changed all her friends--and if she admitted it, herself most of all. Being the Slayer had taught her responsibility and the value of outsiders even while it had shaped her into a warrior over the course of five years.

Xander lounged in tight swim briefs with Anya draped over his legs and Anja massaging his shoulders. Both were naked, and while Xander wasn't--yet--rumor had it he'd taken lovers among the Dragon-Blooded living here, with no protest from either his Lunar mate or his wife that she'd seen. She'd heard the same of Fred, who'd married Xander to Anya in an extravagant ceremony two days after the battle.

Willow and Shadow were present, and had been swimming earlier, but they'd set up a cloth lean-to out of the sun and were wearing full-body wet suits. Willow's black veins and peeling skin continued to spread, and while Shadow had become, if anything, prettier than Buffy herself, she was as pale as Sulumor and seemed unable to tan. At least she didn't catch fire in the sun. Fred carried a bottle of lotion over there as Buffy watched and began to rub it gently into Willow's face.

Thousand-Faceted Nelumbo emerged from a hatch in the floor. She, too, had discarded even her half-cape. She strolled over in Xander's direction, smiling. "What is your saying, Alexander? 'If you've got it, flaunt it'?" It might have been a signal, because Anya abruptly yanked Xander's swimsuit off and tossed it into the water. Xander yelped, which made Anja, Kolohi, and Renjin giggle, but after a moment he simply put his feet up and did a surprisingly good job of pretending to unruffled dignity.

The briefs floated away in Luthe's wake. No one but she, Fred, and Xander yet knew why, but Luthe was testing its long-dormant engines. The fleet had already gone in pursuit of Skullstone's retreating vessels.

Tara popped out of the hatch a moment later. To Buffy's surprise, she was wearing a long dress. That wasn't unusual in itself, of course--she'd been raised in some obscure fundamentalist church, her mother's secret pagan teaching aside--but Buffy knew she had no problems with swimsuits on the beach. Her scales seemed to have vanished, but Buffy had heard her discussing something called a "tell" with Fred.

Buffy raised an eyebrow at the unconventional beachwear, and Tara began to giggle uncontrollably. "Watch this," she said, and suddenly her clothes began to flow and swirl like mist. Her skin scaled over for a moment before returning to normal. Most of the mist evaporated, leaving Tara in a string bikini and making Buffy the most-dressed non-Abyssal on the deck. As if that wasn't surprise enough, Tara's hair also mostly dissipated, leaving her in a tight bob. "Thought I'd try something a little butchier," she said, and fell to laughing again. Buffy laughed with her. Tara was about as butch as a cream puff. "What were they saying, Buffy? If you've got it--"

"You just want to feast your lesbian eyes on my tender virgin flesh," Buffy said jokingly. Strangely, though she'd acknowledged that she was attracted to some women, she felt nothing of the sort for Tara.

Tara gave her a half-smile and said seriously. "Actually that seems a little weird. It'd be like making out with my sister. You feel like my sister," she finished. "You know, before I turned into the black sheep of the family and she rejected me." Buffy frowned. Tara hadn't said anything about memories from the Exaltation, but Buffy's mate had been Ma-Ha-Suchi, and since he was dead...well, that might explain a couple of things. Tara seemed awfully sistery to Buffy too.

"Aww, what the hell," Buffy said. "We'll probably be attacked by a kraken anyway and it'll eat my suit." She reached around and unfastened her top. "Bye-bye tan lines." After a glance in Anya's direction, she dropped the bottom as well, leaving her clad only in sunglasses. Now Tara was the overdressed one.

What happened in Creation stayed in Creation, after all.

**Chapter 57-- Victory and Defeat**

"You know, in my day, if Exalts wanted to go naked, they did so," Five Days' Darkness said. "Especially the Dragon-Blooded, but--"

"I don't doubt it," Kate said, "but it's not your day anymore." The heated indoor pool was comfortable, but she was just fine in her one-piece. She might get a bikini this summer, maybe, with her body firming up, but there was no rush. "Besides, it'd be a distraction. We need to rest, but we need to spend that time discussing our next move."

Faith grumbled under her breath. "I should've taken you all with me but I was afraid we'd be too noticeable and too big a target." She seemed mostly recovered, though Kate noted she seemed to be letting the water support her more than the others.

"We did that," Sam reminded her. "We sent ninety-nine black-ops trained Terrestrials after her. She was at least five moves ahead of us and we did more harm than good." Sam and the other Terrestrials had emerged from the store only a day later, far earlier than Lilah seemed to have expected, but they still rotated in and out of the hotel rooms in shifts. Probably most of them were pregnant by now, if just barely. "We need nonviolent options," she concluded reluctantly.

"She's going to sweep the election," Harmony said with equal reluctance. "And even if she doesn't, our alternative sucks. But we do have one option. Bribe the electors."

"I thought that was illegal," Shoat said.

"It is," Harm agreed. "So's murder, and we've tried that already. If we can get to the electors we can take a page from Lilah's book and persuade them to vote for anyone we want."

"How are we doing this?" Kate asked.

"Blackmail, bribes, sex, threats of force...asking nicely," Harmony said. "We're Exalted. Something will work."

"If Lilah hasn't beaten us there already," Amy pointed out.

"Has everywhere else," Oz said. He was sunk low in the water, and Kate was fairly sure she knew why. Several of the Dragon-Blooded had been making eyes at him. Oz was a fairly normal guy, but he knew by now he couldn't handle Terrestrial appetites.

"Lilah has the jump on all of us," Robin argued, "and it's because she's better suited than any of us to her work. She was already a good evil lawyer before she Exalted. Look at the rest of us."

"I don't think I fit that mold," Kate argued back. "There's no reason a cop shouldn't be as good a Full Moon as Lilah is a Fiend."

"True to an extent," Five Days Darkness said tolerantly. "Three problems, however. First, you have less experience and tutelage. I hope I've helped you a great deal, but Mara was known for feeding her favored students on the souls of others to empower them. Lilah might not even know, but I doubt she'd balk. Second, sad but true, Lunars were never intended to be quite the equals of Solars. You can do several kinds of things she cannot, but where both of you can do a thing you are the less intrinsically capable. Last..." Five paused.

"Last what?" Faith demanded.

"Last, though for malicious reasons, Lilah has accepted that she is a Prince of the Earth. You have not. She abides by certain restrictions strategically, to gain what she desires. You--all of you to varying degrees--still abide by them as if they were truly binding on you. You are not Man, but Superman. But you insist on living otherwise, and so you fail."

Sam was the first to break the silence that followed. "The Nazis misunderstood Nietzsche, but maybe ask why he was so easy to misunderstand."

Five waved a hand dismissively. "Forget Nietzsche. Try this: you keep asking who will rule America if not Lilah Morgan. Why not Kate Lockley? Why not Amy Madison? Why not Faith Lehane? You all seemed pleased that Buffy Summers was Despot of Gem and Winifred Burkle Queen of Luthe. Why is Harmony Kendall, President of the United States so terrifying? As she is now, of course, not as she was."

Everyone fell silent again. "Hey," Shoat said eventually. "None of us are freaking out that Amy's an Infernal. Or Buffy, for that matter. Why haven't we tried _talking_ to Lilah?"

"She tried to kill us," Faith reminded her.

"She expected the same from us," Shoat said, "and we gave it to her."

"We can try," Kate said thoughtfully. "If she's just ambitious maybe we can work with that. I hate to let her off easy but in principle it could be our best option."

"This is foolish," Five began.

"You're against it," Kate interrupted, "and you've been wrong over and over again lately. I don't know what your deal is, but stay out of our way."

Five glared back at her for a moment. "You'll be in her pocket in minutes," he said at last. "But it's your funeral."

"Why are you such a buttface?" Harmony grumbled. "I thought you were being helpful at first, but you just want us to do everything your way."

"If you manage to survive long enough," Five said calmly, "you'll realize that there are ways that work and ways that don't. Not everything has to be done as the ancient Exalts did it--I hope some things change, in fact--but they had learned functional ways of coping with competition and with base urges that this age has forgotten for lack of need. You need my guidance if you are not going to end civilization. I admit to making errors at times--I'm a fallible being. But I know things you do not, and you would do well to listen."

"You want to know why it'd scare me to be in control of the country?" Amy asked. "Because this is my home and Gem isn't. Blame it on imperialism if you like, but we have rules on how things work too. I don't want or need to be in charge."

Five shrugged and climbed out of the pool. "You will." He strolled away past Riley as the latter arrived, looking exhausted.

"Lesbian shift," he said under his breath. "Thank God. Everything ok? Why's everyone looking at me that way?"

No one answered.

*****

All over the city-ship called Luthe, viewscreens came on and speakers activated, all the way from the quarters just below the bridge to down in engineering.

Then, with Queen Winifred's face onscreen, the engines came to life as well, powering up toward maximum.

"Just a few days ago, our city came under attack by the navy of the Skullstone Archipelago, ruled by the Deathlord called the Silver Prince. Until then we, like the rest of the West, had lived at an uneasy peace with him. That peace has been broken.

"The Silver Prince wants an apocalypse for his Neverborn masters. We are going to bring him one.

"Our navy is already in hot pursuit of his defeated fleet. We can and will do better than harry him back to Skullstone. This city is also a mobile attack platform--a giant warship in its own right.

"We will defeat the Silver Prince. If anyone on Skullstone can be trusted to rule wisely and well, we will deliver the archipelago to them. If not, my allies will make it their protectorate and deal justice to the living and the dead.

"On the way we may meet both enemies and allies. Luthe has hidden from the outside world for too long. We will find new friends to trade with. But if anyone would impede us we will evade or defeat them and continue on our way.

"I do not fear any force in this world. I am a Princess of the Earth and an Exalt of Luna. Today Luthe takes its rightful place as the jewel of the West. Today, we rise."

Fred cut the transmission and turned to Buffy. "Well. What do you think?"

Buffy grinned and high-fived her. "Not bad."

Outside Luthe, the currents slowed and stilled, the air heated, the water grew saltier. Dead things floated to the surface. Inside, the air systems rumbled and whined, and static rose on internal communications.

*****

"You just seem...different," Willow said softly.

"We have that in common," Tara said. "You know that."

Willow sat up carefully in the bed, but Tara could see bits and pieces of skin flaking off anyway. Still no worse than a bad sunburn, but it kept spreading. "You want to find out about what you can do, I get that. But...hunting?"

"The hunt is part of what being Chosen of Luna means," Tara explained again. "I'm nervous about it, and you're not wrong. I'm going to have to kill. But in my mind at least, I know that death is as natural a thing as life. You know that too, don't you?"

"Is that why you stayed with me?" Willow asked, almost inaudibly.

Tara hoped Willow hadn't noticed her jump. "I stayed with you because I love you. I don't think being an Abyssal is good for you or for the world, but I understand why you did it and that you never intended to work for the Deathlords or the Neverborn. I understand."

"Can I go with you?" Willow asked.

"I don't think it's wise, Willow." Tara leaned down and kissed her on her dry, peeling lips. "There are other things we can do together. And we will. Soon. But I wasn't given a gift like this to just play with."

One more kiss, and Tara headed out into the endless corridors of Luthe. The upper decks, once slave barracks for the Traitorspawn, had been largely cleared and cleaned; the Luthea mostly now occupied a region of the main habitat quarters, still partly voluntarily segregated for their safety. Their old quarters were now occupied by command staff and, for the moment, by the Scoobies. The hallways were a little dingy still from centuries of misuse.

Fred had her own spacious quarters further down, but she was waiting for Tara a little way down the hall. She waved happily and jogged over to her. "How's Willow?" was the first thing out of her mouth, naturally. Tara wasn't really sure how to deal with the spontaneous new relationship Fred and Willow's Exaltations had imposed, but she was trying.

"I worry about her," Tara said. "She wanted to come with us, and I wanted to let her."

"It wasn't a good idea," Fred agreed.

"I said the ritual prayers," Tara said. "Do I need to do this in my animal form?"

Fred shook her head. "You can hunt in any form you like. You can carry a gun, even, if you want. But It's a good time to get used to your...spirit form, as they call it. They live in the water, don't they?"

"In rivers, partly," Tara said. "But the Amazon basin's pretty salty, and anyway it's mostly fish that have trouble with salinity. I should be all right."

"Go ahead and change," Fred advised her. "Get used to moving around in different environments. You're pretty big."

Tara's scales flickered into visibility at once, fusing or growing larger, especially on places like her neck. Her tongue flicked out, growing narrow, forking, and her eyes became fixed and beady as her eyelids, now transparent, closed over them. A series of pits embedded themselves along her upper lip.

A long tail burst from the bottom of her dress, catching her as her legs began to dwindle. Her arms likewise shrank away to nubs, then nothing. Her dress dissolved into mist. Her body stretched--ten feet, fifteen, twenty. Tara curled around Fred, tasting the air, taking in her thermal image.

"There you go," Fred said. "Get used to it. It's yours. Hell, it doesn't even help me figure your caste." She snickered and patted Tara on the head.

Tara wondered idly what her father would say.

*****

Willow pulled up some spell schematics on the screen. Towers of Azure was very obliging when it came to sorcerous data. A wide variety of animal transformation spells were attested, most of the Terrestrial circle but with such high energy costs that they were rarely used except by Celestial Exalted.

She was about to close out the screen when her door opened without her authorization. "Oh. Hey Xander. Come to say--oh. Hello, um, Admiral Leviathan. Can I help you?" The Admiral was in female mode, just as large and intimidating while being disturbingly attractive. She could tell what Xander saw in him.

"You might," Leviathan said sternly. "I want to be sure I understand your actions. You were certain your spell would not injure me?"

Willow nodded vigorously. "I used it on Glory once and you're even more--"

The admiral held up a hand. "Your goal was to get the fleet to allow you to pass so you could reach the city and offer aid?"

"Just like we did," Willow agreed.

"I am the Admiral of the Western Ocean," Leviathan intoned. "You will not strike at me again. Alexander, your sidearm." Xander's eyes went wide and he made as if to protest, but Leviathan merely pulled the weapon from its holster. "I thank you for your assistance," he said, and forced the barrel between her teeth.

The world went white, then black. There was a long moment in which Willow saw and heard nothing. Her face radiated agony down her neck into her body. Slowly the pain dissipated. Her eyes returned; she glanced in the mirror and wished she hadn't.

"I knew you would suffer no permanent injury," Leviathan said as she scrabbled backwards over the bed. "Do not attack me in any way again. I will not be so gentle. Come, Alexander."

Xander waved apologetically as Leviathan led him forcefully away. He was white as a sheet, just as she probably was between black veins. If her face had finished regenerating, at least.

"Towers of Azure?" she said faintly.

"Yes, Salina?" the AI responded.

"Remind me never to cross him again, please."

*****

"That wasn't very nice," Xander said as Cynis Megara took hold of his arm again.

"I am not a nice person," Leviathan said calmly. "I am a good person, but the dignity of one of the eldest Exalts in Creation is not to be affronted. You saw her recover. Even if she slights me again, I will not _kill_ her for it--though honestly perhaps I should count her as enemy to creation regardless of her actions. Your expectations are rooted in human frailties that apply to none of you any more."

"Isn't the same true of you?" Xander asked heatedly. "You were never in any danger."

Leviathan sighed. "Alexander, you are a good student. I have taught you many things about construction and the technology of my time. The basic foundation of our _society_ was the authority and dignity of the Exalted. We must be respected, and to those who would stand against us we must be feared. You and your friends are now on a mission of conquest, whatever you choose to call it. You can gain allies by respect and the veiled threat of force, or you can make subjects by the force of your daiklaives and your cannon. I would have thought you preferred the former."

"Look," Xander said as forcefully as he could manage, "I've done my best to take your advice. I won't pretend I'm not enjoying some of it--"

"As well you should," Leviathan said calmly.

"But I draw a line at hurting my friends. If you'd hurt Willow in battle--even if you'd killed her--I'd be pissed but I'd understand." Megara seemed ready to disappear into the floor. "But you don't just walk up to someone and shoot them in the face!"

" _You_ do not, perhaps. Not in your world. Take the risks you choose and pay for them, Alexander. I will not allow them to kill you." Leviathan turned and strolled away down the corridor. Xander could have sworn he was doing it in a deliberately sexy manner. Maybe it was a lesson; Xander wanted very badly to chase after him and apologize.

"I can't believe you stand up to her like that," Megara said. Leviathan barely even noticed her; he had made a single comment that Xander might as well have children with her, since it wouldn't do much harm to the Terrestrial bloodlines.

Xander shrugged and led her away. "What can I say? I've got a problem taking advice."

*****

D'Hoffryn smiled indulgently at her. His girls envied her. All of them. She'd become greater than they could ever be, because it had been predestined. Who had predestined it? D'Hoffryn. It was a circle. But what happened when she grew greater than D'Hoffryn?

"Here, Drusilla. The instrument of your power: the Loom of Fate. I have let it be known that the Loom is broken, and it is...but not as broken as they think." Drusilla giggled. It was an excellent plan.

"When Creation was destroyed and Gaia and Autochthon carried away the survivors, the Loom was sundered. Yu-Shan was in disarray, and I walked free into Heaven. The Loom was crippled and all the pattern spiders save Asna Firstborn slain. I told her to anchor her remaining threads to Gaia, and what was left of the city of gods was carried away as my domain: Arashmahar without end. But it has been ten millennia since the Final Calibration, and Asna's new brood mended what could be mended long, long ago."

Drusilla gazed upon the shining threads with wonder. This was hers. All hers. She was First, First of the New Fivescore--if she allowed any more to be born.

"I have toyed with it, come to understand its workings, but even with heaven empty of gods it would not authorize me to perform more than the most basic functions. But it was enough. I set Destiny on the course that would lead, inexorably, to you. It was not perfect. I meant my daughter to stand by your side and to become Lord of All...with me as her ever-generous advisor and faithful vassal, of course. But all things in time."

Across the threads Drusilla caught a vision of herself muttering prophecies she could neither fathom nor reveal. Of course it had been so. Who could have perceived, conceived the twisting skein that would lead her here?

"You and you alone bear the full authority to weave the threads of Fate itself, Drusilla. The world belongs to you, whatever those fools Mara and Five Days' Darkness intend. Do what you will shall be the whole of your law. I give the Loom into your hands."

Drusilla gazed into the Loom and saw all secrets, and she wept for joy.

*****

"You know I need to get back to Washington. I have a victory speech to make." Lilah sat with her feet up on the CEO's desk, though tha name on it read Lindsey MacDonald.

"Don't count your chickens," Kate insisted. She had the whole team behind her. There'd be no preventing _all_ of them from getting away if it came to that. "There are five days left till the election."

"And what sort of November surprise have you got in mind, Lockley? Another assasination attempt? Some scandal about demons? By the way, I've found a veep to appoint. There'll be a press conference tomorrow, but what do you think of Senator Helen Bruckner? All-female ticket!" She offered Kate up a shit-eating grin.

"Bruckner?" Faith wanted to know. "The demon?"

"Come on now. She's a natural-born American citizen, Miss Lehane. Let's not be bigoted."

"This isn't what we came for," Harmony cut in. "Lilah, we won't let you wreck the country. But you know that's totally not in your best interests anyway. You benefit from a strong America in a stable world order. Right?"

Lilah sat up straight for the first time. "You want to cut a deal. And here I thought none of you people had any sense. You're absolutely right. I don't get anything out of destabilizing the country and I don't intend to. Possibly the world, but even that needs to proceed in good order. So how do you sse yourself under my administration, Miss Kendall? You've set yourselves up as vigilantes."

"We want law enforcement powers. Don't tell me that's impossible. You were just a lawyer a few months ago and now you're, like, about to be in the Oval Office. So you know what you can do."

Lilah laughed. "That's an interesting bargain, Harmony. I take it you've guessed I intend to make the big reveal, then?" She stood up and walked around the desk. "I'm arranging a fake space mission from Pylea. They'll leave us a 'stargate' and we can 'enter commerce with the galaxy at large'. Yes, it's a blow to the status quo, but it should be to everyone's benefit. As 'alien immigrants' demons can have full citizenship rights and also be subject to our laws. But I'm sure you want to be allowed to go on hunting them and occult criminals, is that it?"

"That's one hell of an ambitious plan, ma'am," Riley said. "I happen to know it could backfire horribly."

"Oh, lieutenant. You mean the Initiative disaster? Which, if I recall correctly, involved brain implants, performance-boosting drugs, and involuntary cyborgization?" Lilah rolled her eyes. "My administration will not tolerate any such massive rights violations. Anyone who can behave civilly is welcome in my country; anyone who can't will be subject to normal criminal penalties."

"Yes, Lilah," Kate agreed. "I could live with that. If you set us up as a special enforcement branch--"

"Then we have a deal," Lilah said smugly. "The Dragon-Blooded will need some sort of academy, I expect. And the rest of you...yes, I can make some kind of arrangements, give you legal powers. Is that agreeable?"

"We'll have our eyes on you," Robin warned. "Don't think you can stop us by withholding resources. It won't be that easy."

"I'm sure it won't," Lilah agreed. "I wouldn't think of doing anything so crude. Follow applicable laws and I'll ensure you're properly funded. I'll have a draft of the agreement for you after the election. Deal?"

"Deal," Amy said. "Keep to it." She looked around at the others. "We done here?" Skeptical looks were exchanged. In the end, though....

"Is this really what we came here for?" Oz asked as the elevator went down.

"Maybe," Shoat said. "We can always cut ourselves loose if we need to. We can find other ways of raising money or even just make our own equipment. This isn't the Justice League. In the meanwhile we get to go legit. We did want that, right? No breaking the law or carving out our own empires?"

"Yes," Kate said grimly as they left the building. "That's what we want."

*****

Tara rippled just below the surface of the water, snout breaking the surface for air. Below her, Fred's tentacles lazily churned the sea.

Fred had asked if this was really what she wanted to go after. She could find something that wasn't a predator, something small for camouflage and spying.

Later, Tara'd told her. Predation was a reality she needed to get used to, and she needed to test the limits of this form.

In this particular species the boys were larger, but she also risked going beyond her weight limit. Besides, she wasn't sure she was ready to wear a male body, even of an animal. All in good time.

Its hunting method not too different from hers, the saltwater crocodile lurked near the surface, a killing machine even more primordial than herself. It snorted faintly warm breath laden with steam. Its armor would be impregnable to most teeth. That was okay. Tara wasn't going to be using her teeth.

She approached obliquely from behind, just at the boundary between sea and sky. It couldn't see her, hear her, smell her. If it did, this would suddenly become a battle she might lose. She moved slowly, almost lazily, until she was drifting past its tail.

One heartbeat and she was coiled around the saltie, crushing its chest, its guts, its neck. This was not her natural prey. It fought, wrenching here and there, trying to find a spot clear for its bite, rolling in the water as if it had hold of her already. Another coil wrapped around its jaws. The beast thrashed, and she squeezed harder, crushing, smashing. The croc's movements weakened as air bubbled from its lungs. Still it fought her, and she hung on for dear life. Struggling. Squirming. Twitching. Motionless.

Tara's instincts warned her to hold on a few moments longer. Then she snatched a quick breath of air. The crocodile drifted, its bones shattered, its organs squeezed to mush. "Um," Fred said. She'd reverted to a nearly human shape. "I didn't think of this, but it's perfectly okay to tow it back to Luthe and use tools to get its heart's blood there. You can't cut or bite it in this form."

Tara didn't revert or respond. She'd thought of this already, and the answer was disturbing but obvious. There was a card trick where you insisted that you could hand back any card after it was reshuffled into the deck. You just handed the whole deck back.

She opened her mouth wide. Then wider. Her jaw unhinged, its halves separating. Wider still. Letting her windpipe protrude so she could breathe, she took the croc's snout into her mouth and began to swallow it down. It should be just small enough; she'd chosen carefully.

"Oh," Fred said. "Okay."

It took the better part of half an hour to swallow the crocodile completely. Not that it mattered; they had time. More worryingly, it was right at the limit of what her stomach could hold. Her ribs were stretched wide; her skin felt like a balloon ready to burst. If she changed back would she explode like Mr. Creosote from Monty Python?

Somehow Fred guessed what she was thinking. "Thank god, no. That thing'll shift into Elsewhere like your clothes. I'm not sure about the physics but I'm pretty sure your stomach'll stay full till you've digested it all, so don't expect to be hungry for a few days. You are warm-blooded though, so maybe not _quite_ as long. And speaking from experience you might wanna be the snake when, ah...you poop."

Goddess, she hadn't thought of that either! This was going to take some getting used to. By way of experiment she surfaced and let herself become human again, arms and legs sprouting, tail shrinking away. Sure enough, she was bloated but not inhumanly so. Hopefully no one would think she was pregnant when she stayed like this for days.

"So," Tara said, treading water, "who's going to be my official mentor? Leviathan? The Sage?"

"Me," Fred said with a shrug. "I know that sounds weird with all the big names around, but I'm Dreamer-of-Reason- _Shahanya_ , the noob who beat down Leviathan. And I'm a No Moon, so they kind of think I'll master the whole tattooing thing, which I probably oughta. I have to admit I don't know you well enough yet to have a clue what caste you'll end up as, but we're from the same world. That's a factor too. The Sage had a devil of a time with me."

Tara laughed. "Surely you know I'm not a Full Moon by now."

Fred said, very seriously, "You wouldn't be the first battle-sorceror in any of the warrior-type castes. I know you don't think of yourself that way, but you've been fighting at Buffy's side for what, a year and a half? And you've really stepped up your game lately. But if I had to guess, I'd say No Moon like me. We'll just have to see what develops, I guess. Let's shift back and find the skiff so we can catch Luthe. Who knows how far they are by now?"

Tara nodded and began to change. She knew it would worry Fred to say she wondered how good an idea the tattoos really were. So she didn't.

*****

"I thought you were sleeping," Shadow said. "I didn't mean to wake you up. I just wanted to borrow some clothes."

"You didn't wake me. You know I don't sleep anymore." Buffy didn't turn on the lights. 

"You might've wanted to see the future," Shadow suggested, emerging from the closet. Buffy had left her room largely undecorated, as if she didn't mean to stay.

"Not tonight," Buffy said, "but you're right. I was hanging out with Sineya, though."

"Why?" Shadow sat on the end of the bed. "Just because you have to live with a demon in your head doesn't mean you have to listen to her or get along. You could just shut her down again."

"I could," Buffy agreed. "But she's not hurting anyone, and I can keep her happy without it by letting her enjoy storms. And...well...lights?"

The lights came up. Buffy was sitting there cross-legged and it took a moment for Shadow to see what was different about her. Then wings black as the night sky unfolded from Buffy's back, wider than she was tall.

"Can you actually fly with those?"

"I think so," Buffy said. "The aerodynamics are wrong, but they're wrong for radeken anyway. And these are completely real and actually growing out of my back. Supposedly anyway; I dunno how to tell the difference."

"I guess I shouldn't question you about it," Shadow said. "I'm the one drinking blood."

"You haven't killed anyone for it," Buffy said. Shadow didn't answer. She hadn't, but that didn't mean she wouldn't if there was a good enough reason. To her surprise, Buffy let it go. "Thanks for staying to talk. I still haven't quite got used to having you around. There're plenty of mes running around but you're the only one who's also someone else."

"You can get into the others' heads, can't you?"

Buffy nodded agreement. "One's discussing policy with Iron Siaka. One's sleeping with Dharma. There are a couple going somewhere."

 _How does this feel?_ Shadow asked.

_It's a little painful, but it feels good to have you back in my head again anyway. I'm glad it's not spreading, though._

_That was the worst,_ Shadow agreed. _By sleeping with you mean...._

 _Having sex, yeah. And yes I peeked a little. She doesn't mind. I couldn't see anything she didn't send on purpose._ Buffy shifted on the bed. _It's weird that talking about it isn't weird with you. We should hang out more often. I'd ask you to come fly with me, but I'm not sure I can carry you._

Shadow stood. "Let's try. What's the worst that can happen, we fall?"

Buffy shrugged. "Fair enough. Let's give these babies a whirl."

*****

Election night. Amy watched with the others, pleased to see Lilah sweeping state after state.

"I hafta admit," Faith said, "she knows what she's doing. I'm just glad we were able to make a deal with her."

Something seemed wrong about that, but Amy couldn't work out what. "During the so-called Era of Good Feeling," the announcer said, "one elector broke with the party to vote for someone else because he believed only George Washington should ever get all the votes. From the polls we're seeing here, someone may have to do the same or Lilah Morgan will join him in that exalted status this year."

That was wrong. Why was it wrong? They'd made a deal...right? Lilah's plans for America seemed benign enough. Why--?

"Shit," Amy heard herself saying. "People don't vote this way on their own. We've been snowed." Everyone stared at her.

"We made a bargain," Sam said. "She's not going to--"

"She played us," Amy insisted. "Just believe me, okay? Five was right. She's screwing us over. I don't know how exactly, but she has to be."

"What do you mean?" Shoat asked. "Isn't she one of the good guys?"

"No, she really isn't. Please you've gotta try and snap out of it!"

"Out of what?" Oz scratched his head. "Amy, she's not that bad. You need to calm down."

"I know she's messed the world up somehow. Just give me a chance to prove it."

Kate stared at her for a few moments. "Fine. Work it out if you can. Just don't jeopardize our arrangement."

Amy nodded and didn't say a word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story continues in "God Is Real and She's American".


End file.
